Tuesday 24 September 2013

Review: Covent Garden Travelodge

Let me start by saying that my family use Travelodges fairly regularly, I am on their email list and this means I get to hear about their sales before they start. So when the special offer rooms are released and they are only £19 or £29 I book up the rooms I need for the year ahead, all across the country. The value is good and I realise that the room will be pretty basic, that is what I expect.

So when Travelodge contacted me and said that they had overhauled a number of their hotels and they have a fresh new look, would I like to come and try out one of their exclusive new Sleepeezee beds I thought why not. Conveniently a room was found for me at the Covent Garden Travelodge for the night of the MAD blog awards. This hotel is a really large one and even though I did not arrive there until 2.30am to check in there were still people around and the local streets outside were well lit and felt safe.

Our check in was easy and I had worried that 2.30am was not the best time to check in but the night receptionist was friendly and efficient. We headed down to our ground floor room and I was pleasantly surprised when we opened the door that the room did indeed look very fresh and welcoming. The first thing I noticed was the bed and how luxurious it looked, the pillows were plump and stood tall and there were four of them. In my experience this has been practically unheard of in the Travelodges I have stayed in in the past. I have had to ask at reception for extras and not always got them.

Let me show you how their new decor looks -


I think the impression on walking in the room is good, the rooms are far more spacious than many 4* star rooms I've stayed in in London. The decor is pleasant and the rooms very clean.

The great points -
  • I think that you get everything you need in a Travelodge room, there are plenty of lighting alternatives, by the beds, overhead, on the headboard and desk lamp and there must be something to suit everyone.
  • Tea and coffee making facilities in the room if you want them and I've always found if you ask for more milk jiggers, teabags etc they are very accommodating
  • Thick curtains which blackout all the light, just what you need when you go to bed at silly o'clock after a fabulous night with friends
  • Divine bed, honestly it is really lovely and I wanted to sneak one of the pillows home with me. I shared with Charly Dove and we both commented on how good the bed is and lucky it is a kingsize as Charly and I have only met once before!
  • The shower room is a really good size and you get full size bath towels
  • Kids under 16 stay free in the room with adults, this is the feature we use all the time when we stay over generally
  • Check out at 12 noon as standard - fantastic. Much later than I expected and actually we lingered in the room until nearer 1pm and no-one even knocked
The not so great -
  • The noise level, I suppose it is to be expected in central London and of course we were ground floor, but after falling off to sleep about 4am I did not need the bin men waking me at 7am. There are two sets of double glazing so they have tried to block it out
  • We did not have any foot mat for the shower and this would have been helpful when you have multiple people to shower 
  • We arrived to breakfast dead on 11am (the time it finishes) and we were left with the drag ends of the buffet. Actually the food we had tasted good and I enjoyed my breakfast, which would normally cost £7.65 but the buffet was not very visually appealing as many things appeared to had finished. 
As you can see the restaurant looks very pleasant

Overall

I'm not going to kid you, a Travelodge is an economy hotel but it has done well with its rooms refit and I think this now puts the bedrooms on a par with Premier Inns bedrooms, which in the past most people would agree have been better.

Disclosure: I was provided with a complimentary room and breakfast for two for the purpose of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
If you like what you have read and want to stay up-to-date then subscribe by email for free and receive blog posts directly to your in-box - just click the link Subscribe to Mummy From The Heart... by Email or perhaps you like to keep all your blog reading in one place, if that is the case you can follow me on BlogLovin too!Follow on Bloglovin
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...