Travelodge Dartford Crossing

There’s a reason it’s cheap: the place needs to be torn down and started again. It’s utterly disgusting. I stay in Travelodge hotels for work, and this is by far the worst one I’ve been to. The room I had was musty, looked older than I am and had black mould around the windows and on the bathroom shower wall. There were also some kind of bugs living in it. The hotel feels like a hostel. It’s in the middle of nowhere, with the nearest supermarket, Asda, a good 30 minute walk away. Mobile reception was nonexistent, so remote work meant relying on the hotel’s poor WiFi, with download speeds capped at around 5mbps. Absolutely ridiculous.

The room doors keep slamming and the walls are paper thin, so it’s really noisy. The location is annoying too. Nothing was ready or open, including the bar and restaurant. They’re still doing up the hotel, and the reception looks like a courier company’s front desk. The staff seemed cool, apart from the first woman I saw at checkout, who was on her mobile and gave me side eye. I thought that was rude.

For £30, I guess you get a bed that’s halfway comfortable, if you can put up with the smell, damp, mould and general shoddiness. Staff seemed pleasant enough. I stayed because it was close to brands hatch and figured it would beat camping in November. Honestly, I think camping would’ve been better. I’d read some reviews before checking in and thought, “it can’t really be that bad, right?” The room smelled horrible, faintly of vomit, and the whole building felt tired. The walls are paper thin, so you can hear your neighbours having sex. If that’s your thing, this place is for you. Otherwise, spend an extra £20 and go somewhere else. This was by far the worst hotel I’ve stayed in the UK.

The hotel’s bar and restaurant looked like a college common room from the 90s. The furniture was filthy and damaged, with torn, pitted and stained upholstery. The carpet was thin and had bits of dirt on it, like the vacuum, if they used one, wasn’t up to the job. The place smells of damp in some areas and weed in others. I last stayed here about 20 years ago when it was a Campanile, and the rooms haven’t been updated since. In room 309, the window handle was loose, so I couldn’t pull the window close enough for the latch to catch. The bathroom was clean but worn, and there were too many shower-curtain hooks, leaving a gap for water to run onto the floor. The shower was fine, but sometimes went very hot before settling back to normal. It was cheap, had free parking and the bathroom came with 2 bath towels. The staff I spoke to were very friendly, but given the state of the place, there wasn’t much they could do about the problems. I wouldn’t stay again in its current state.