Travelodge Bracknell

For a two-star place, I’m really impressed with this Travel lodge on Beehive rd Bracknell. The rooms are so clean and have recently been decorated. The beds are great, I slept better than at home, and it’s very quiet. The people at the desk are always really friendly. I’ve stayed in other three-star hotels that were awful, so this one is definitely worth recommending, especially at such a cheap price. You can stay until midday before you have to leave. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

I was travelling with three friends and we ended up paying for six beds across two rooms, even though we only needed four. Travelodge’s booking site wouldn’t let us fit four adults in one room, so we had to book separately. The family room we got had four beds, and the other was a double. Our rooms were on different floors, which wasn’t a big problem in this small two-storey hotel, but carrying heavy luggage up and down was frustrating without a lift. It’s also not accessible for wheelchair users or pushchairs. This Travelodge was small and suburban, with few nearby facilities, which I expected. That wasn’t my complaint. I knew the chain from previous stays, but this visit was horrendous. One of the main problems was a rotten-fruit smell in the family room where I stayed with a friend. We could smell it from the corridor as we approached the door. We complained and asked to move, and they agreed, but said they were fully booked, so they swapped our room with someone else’s. Our two other friends’ double room was fine, but outside their door, room 21, the corridor ceiling had a gap with exposed mould and wiring, a leak, and a bucket underneath it. We were moved from downstairs to room 27 upstairs. Both new rooms were okay, but there were stains on the beds and we’d only been given two skimpy towels for our four-bed room. Still, the night’s sleep was good and the rooms were bearable. The worst incident happened after we got back from our event around 1 a.m. My friend couldn’t find her retainers. She’d left them in a mug with cleaning solution on the bedside table, but the mug had been emptied, cleaned and put back on the desk with a spoon inside. We searched everywhere and then went down to reception at 2 a.m. The receptionist spoke very little English, so it was hard to explain how urgent the problem was and how much housekeeping’s mistake could affect her. My friend had to sleep without her retainer, which anyone who’s had braces knows isn’t good for your teeth. The room had clearly been cleaned: three of the four mugs were back on the desk with spoons, the bins had been emptied, the coffees, teas and sugars restocked, and two fresh towels left for us. They’d also left the full cup of tea my friend had made that morning, but cleaned out the mug that had held her retainer. The night receptionist said he’d leave a note for the manager to speak with us before our noon checkout. The next morning, the manager searched the bins in front of us, but tried to gaslight us by saying we’d misplaced the retainers, insisted housekeeping hadn’t touched them, and said there was nothing he could do. Completely unacceptable. Don’t stay here if you want to keep your things.

The way the hotel handled my missing retainers was the worst part. After looking for them with staff and coming up empty, I was left stressed and facing the cost of replacements. They later emailed to say their investigation found no fault and they would take no responsibility. When I first reported it, staff either seemed not to grasp how urgent it was or suggested I had misplaced them. My friend and I had already needed to change rooms as soon as we arrived because of a strong, unpleasant smell. I felt unsupported, and I can't recommend the hotel to anyone who expects basic care and respect for their belongings.

The reception team were extremely polite and friendly, and the room and bathroom looked fairly clean. But the toilet was caked with black mould under the rim, which didn't look like it had ever been brushed. We also had children racing along the corridor until late. Since our accessible room faced the road and had no net curtains, we had to keep the curtains shut for privacy, and the traffic noise was very loud.