I stayed at this Travelodge after going to a wedding reception nearby. Travelodge is a no thrills…read morehotel and i will try to bear this in mind while i write my review.
We drove past the building the first time. It is a miserable grey looking building and it just moulds into the local scenery because all the nearby buildings look the same. Check-in is as 3pm and you cannot gain access any earlier. We were early so we paid and displayed in their car park which was a reasonable £5 for four hours and asked at reception for directions into town. We were quoted a 20 minute walk. It was nearer to 35 minutes in reality.
When we returned to the Travelodge there was a queue of people waiting to be served but it was all amicable and didn't take long for the reception staff to shift the queue. There is an ice cream vending machine in the reception area. Check-in was quick and easy. We were issued door cards and went to our room. We took the stairs to the first floor. The stair walls were heavily marked but not dirty.
The bedroom was a good size. The floor was clean, the bin empty. There were enough towels and toilet rolls. The only real complaint we had about the room was that the toilet had not been cleaned and the previous guest had left us a sizable present. The toilet bin lid appeared to have faeces on it. The shower curtain was yellowing and there was mould along the bottom of the curtain and in the shower grout.
The bed was clean and smelt freshly bleached. We voiced our concerns about the dirty toilet as we were leaving for the wedding reception and the young man who helped us was so helpful he was going to give us a new room. We were in a rush so we asked him to get someone to just clean it instead. It was sparkling when we returned.
When we returned, we ordered a nightcap from the bar. Unfortunately they could only take card payments because they didn't have enough change in the till. I'd thought that was kind of a given basic in retail, but we paid by card. We sat in the lounge area with the hard no-thrills sofas. They had the footy on in the corner. It was warm.
This Travelodge isn't too far from a railway line where the trains rumble past quite frequently. The last one i heard was at half one in the morning and they were still passing at half six, roughly every twenty minutes.
For breakfast, we took the lift down. There are two lifts, both are small (hold 8 small people each) and were really dirty and smelt a bit.
We were greeted by the kitchen staff when we entered the lounge for breakfast. That was nice. Items available were a range of boxed cereals, milk, croissants, toast, muffins, a range of spreads, yoghurts and sausages, bacon, tomatoes, egg and beans. The cooked foods were all tasty, except for the scrambled egg, which had no flavour at all. Tea, coffee and juices were also available. You'll need to get down there within half an hour of it opening as seating is limited.
There is also a free pay phone for the use of calling taxi's which everyone in Brighton seems to do as the fares are so cheap!
The staff were very helpful.
Check out was a doddle you just hand your door cards back in at receptions and that's it you're free to go:)