Travelodge London Farringdon

The food options were a real plus for us as vegans. The breakfast buffet had two types of Alpro yoghurt, vegan sausages, hash browns, tomatoes, pancakes, and almond and oat milk. At the restaurant there were plenty of vegan choices too, with meals available until 10pm and snacks and pizzas until 4am. We picked the SuperRoom Double, which came with AC, two pillows each, a fridge, coffee machine, and complimentary KitKats. We regifted the KitKats since we're vegan. The blackout curtains worked well and the beds were comfortable, if a bit hard. On the 2nd floor we could barely hear or feel the underground. For a couple quid extra, you can choose your room and get a higher floor or a quieter room away from the street. The renovated rooms, breakfast, restaurant, and bar look great. We were warmly welcomed at check-in and staff were friendly throughout. It's close to St Pancras, convenient if you're arriving by train, and there's a bus stop right outside. One downside: the twin room my father and sister in law had on the 5th floor didn't have soft-close doors. The door slammed every time someone came in or left, waking them at night. Doors on the 2nd floor closed much more quietly. I don't understand the negative reviews. I've visited London over a dozen times in the past 15 years, and every affordable place I've stayed at was much worse than this.

I enjoyed my four days here. The bedroom and bathroom were clean, though there wasn't any drawer storage. Breakfast was a good buffet, with fresh fruit and vegetarian yogurts. I was disappointed that I had to pay to leave my suitcase for a few hours on the last day.

I usually like Travelodge, cheap and cheerful, but this place felt depressing. It's an old building with some renovations, yet still well behind newer Travelodges and Premier Inns. We had a newly renovated Plus room, but the shower area was in poor shape, with silicone peeling away from the tray. The shower temperature swung between cold and worryingly hot. We were there in December and needed the new ceiling air-con heating unit, but it was loud and didn't work well. We turned it off overnight and put up with the cold. The sound insulation was really bad. Traffic noise in central London is understandable, but we could hear the adjacent guests talking even though they weren't loud, plus everything from their toilet and bathroom. The walls felt paper thin.

The food and dessert at the restaurant downstairs were lovely, but getting drinks took around 20-30 minutes, timed by my friend, and we'd nearly finished eating by then. There were hardly any other customers around. The location was easy to find and not far from King’s Cross station. Reception was lovely when we arrived, gave us our room number, and let us request a hairdryer. But our fifth-floor corner room looked only partly redone compared with the pictures. The windowsill and carpet were dirty, there were black specks on the bathroom wall, limescale on the metal shower part, and paint marks beside the door. It wasn't very clean. The next morning around 10am, we asked reception whether breakfast was still being served and what time it ended. The receptionist was snappy and unpleasant, even though we didn't know the hours. The breakfast and dinner times were shown in only one elevator, so we went somewhere else. Our room was never cleaned during the stay, although we saw housekeeping attend to other rooms every day. We had to ask reception for supplies, including toilet paper, and the “top me up sign” that had been on the door was gone. Nothing was done. I'd recommend this area because it's close to King’s Cross station, but I wouldn't recommend this hotel.