A Travelodge guest claims to have found a mattress "covered in stains" and experienced "unbearably" hot rooms during separate stays at two of the budget hotel chain's sites in England. Tom Bradey recently booked-in at both the Cooper Dean Travelodge in Bournemouth and the chain's Sheffield city centre branch within weeks of each other.
But the 26-year-old from Somerset said that when he checked-in to his hotel on both occasions, he was greeted by overheated and "grotty" rooms with bedsheets covered in stains and markings up and down the walls. Tom told the Mirror: "The Sheffield one looked really clean and presentable for the outside and when you got into the lobby area, they smelt clean - they both smelt really clean."
"The only reason I looked out for the cleanliness was because the sheet hadn't been tucked in, it looked like it had been thrown on. I thought, 'I'm just going to have a look. And this was when we started seeing the problems."
Tom stripped back the bedding and found a mattress he claims was covered in stains. He said: "The mattress was in such a state. I mean, surely they're supposed to put mattress protectors on it. "There was a yellow stain on there which I really don't want to know what it is."
"There was a musty smell, it wasn't a urine smell but a musty smell, it just didn't smell clean. We walked in there and were really tense, because we could just feel there was something wrong with it."
The room in Sheffield was "unbearably hot", and there was no way of cooling down, Tom said. He claims to have felt the same overpowering heat in both hotels, but said the one in Sheffield was the worst.
"There was a fan in the room but the fan isn't the best when the heat is unbearable." And the conditions of his Travelodge room in Sheffield mirrored a similar experience he had while staying at the chain's Cooper Dean site in Bournemouth weeks earlier according to Tom.
He says his 'filthy' Dorset hotel room included an unclean toilet seat, bedding with marks all over it and a stain on the wall. "We went to our room and we noticed that the toilet seat hadn’t been cleaned, the bedding had marks on it and there was a stain on the wall," Tom said.
"We took the pictures to the woman on reception. We showed her the photos and she goes I'll come up and have a look. And she was absolutely disgusted. She said, 'I'm on my own, but I'll clean the room. Because we're fully booked. And I'll do it to the best that I can. I'll replace everything.'"
In a statement, a Travelodge spokesperson said: "We would like to sincerely apologise to Mr Bradey that we have not delivered our normal high standards of service on his recent stays. We take customer feedback extremely seriously, and we are undertaking a full investigation into Mr Bradey’s feedback.
"Depending on our findings we will ensure the relevant staff members are refreshed on their training. The safety of our colleagues and guests is paramount to us.
"We can confirm that our safety practices are industry standard and lone working within the hospitality sector, in particular at night, is a widely recognised and accepted working practice across the whole hotel industry. We have protocols and risk assessments in place to support this practice and these are regularly reviewed.
"We once again sincerely apologise to Mr Bradey and we have refunded the outstanding balance for his bookings.”
