Travelodge Birmingham Central Newhall Street — Hotel in Birmingham

I had to stay here when i went to Birmingham for work purposes. Stayed for one night only and it was a horrible experience to be really honest. Firstly, its not safe at all you will find druggies around. Secondly, the staff has 0 customer service skills, when i checked in the guy at the reception was not really helpful he just handed over a card with a number on without saying when and why i should call this number. Thirdly, only one lift was working and it doesn’t work properly you have to swipe your key so many times to call the lift. Fourthly, no free WiFi you have to pay for Wifi I wasn’t being told anything about this. When i went down to check with reception the guy said well you should have read the info card i gave you everything is there Next thing was , shower gel dispenser was not working and then it started leaking i went down to the reception to report this the girl on the reception said “can’t you see I am busy at the moment give me your room number and I will come and check”and she wrote my room number on her hand. I waited and waited nobody came. I was worried that I dont want to slip because of all the soap on the floor. Went down again and asked the guy said oh she forgot your room number and gave me shower gel in a paper cup. I asked ok but what about the leakage as i needed to take shower before going to bed and i dont wanna slip and fall its a hazard he said the maintenance team will have a look in the morning Next thing was there was so much noise during the night , and someone was kicking off in the corridor around 1 am and sounded like they were having a physical fight. So much shouting and banging while that lasted someone tried checking the door handle as if they were trying to open the door Room was very humid no proper ventilation only a small table fan which you can’t plug in near the bed as there are no plug sockets next to the bed.no USB socket in the room at all. So i stayed up all night ( i was awake since 4am the day before to catch my train anyway so i didn’t sleep at all ) Breakfast was average they have watered down the milk in the coffee machine so whatever you get you will get a black coffee only.

So over all, if you are a woman travelling alone don’t stay in this hotel. Its not safe at all. Its open to all sorts of people there are alot of druggies as well. Dont expect anything from staff especially those who are on night duty. They are never there and the number they give you nobody...

Firstly, the manager Clare/Claire that’s at the front desk needs to check herself. We had travelled over 10 hours to get here, we KNEW what time check in was however our bus coming in at 6:30am we thought it would be fine to sit in the reception. We had been there since 7 and started to fall asleep on the couch, never had a problem doing this in any Travelodge/premier inn, however can completely understand if this is not allowed. What I don’t understand is Clare/Claire screaming at us from the reception desk that this is a business that they have to keep the standard for and that we need to look more “lively”. First of all, it’s a travelodge, people book it because it’s cheap, stop acting like you’re in charge of the ritz. Second of all, there’s a way to address someone, if you are trying to keep the professional look of said business screaming from the reception does not fit that standard, it was rude and unnecessary. You have legs, you could have used them to come over to us and speak to us like humans. In addition to this she addressed us as “girls” but addressed every other customer as sir/madame… seems like she had a power trip as she believes we were younger? I can assure you that we are both adults and I expect the same service that you clearly had in your well-being to provide to others. Even when she eventually did check us in her attitude remained the same. However, I cannot fault the younger staff I had the pleasure of interacting with, ALWAYS polite. Please give your staff a refresher on customer service as it seems like it has skipped a generation. Kindness...

Upon arrival the staff at reception were brilliant, giving a friendly greeting and making me feel instantly at home and welcome. A few PC problems meant it wasn’t the slickest or fastest check-in process but that was no issue given the staff. Despite being a city centre hotel it’s location is down a fairly quiet side street which fortunately means that the noise levels aren’t anything to hamper a good nights sleep.

My room was on the first floor, served by a couple of fairly decent lifts which there’s never a need to wait long for. Unfortunately it wasn’t one of the newer refurbished styles but was at least clean and everything you’d expect from the brand. Given the older style meant there were no electric charging sockets next to the bed but fortunately there was no noise from the corridors or adjacent rooms.

The bar on the ground floor is open until very early in the morning and although staff are shared between reception and the bar they are all super attentive and friendly, despite having their responsibilities shared between the roles. There’s a TV for keeping up to date with the news and for a Travelodge the atmosphere was decent enough.

Overall the sleep quality was great, the value superb and for my needs, location excellent. It’s certainly somewhere I’ll be returning and can’t help but recommend...