Anyone who has traveled with their family probably has a horror story about their accommodations. When you’re staying at a hotel, anything can go wrong. And more often than not, it will. One mom in England recently detailed the nightmare her family endured during their travels.
The mom shared that when her family checked into their motel after a long evening at a wedding, their room key didn’t work. There was no way that the family could have anticipated the night they were about to have.
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The family had been at an out-of-town wedding and were planning to stay at a motel.
The Mirror reported on mom Danielle Barclay and her family’s ordeal while staying at the Travelodge Ashbourne in Derbyshire, England, shortly after Christmas. Barclay, her husband, and their two children had been at a wedding nearby. When they went to enter their room, they discovered the room key wasn’t working.
“We went straight to reception and the lady was lovely and was like ‘Oh yeah, I’ll come have a look at it.’ She couldn’t get it to work. She kept trying and trying and trying,” Barclay explained.
The family had no choice but to wait for help.
According to the mom, the woman at the desk called the manager, who “was apparently in Belgium and couldn’t really do much to help and there was nobody else to help her.”
The family sat in the hallway of the motel “for like an hour,” and Barclay explained her daughter was “crying and upset because she was worrying and panicking that we weren’t going to get our things out the room,” adding that it was “traumatizing” for her kids. While they waited, her “exhausted” son “laid on the corridor floor trying to get some sleep.”
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They weren't going to be able to access their room for hours, and they had limited options.
It would be hours before maintenance could come to unlock their room. With no other rooms available, the hotel offered the family the option to stay at another Travelodge 20 miles away. They turned those accommodations down.
“It was 2 o’clock in the morning, the kids were exhausted and more taxi rides out to places,” she said, explaining why the option didn’t work for her family.
The mom also cited concerns for their belongings as a reason to stay. “Maintenance would have opened the door at four o’clock and our door would have been unlocked and our belongings were still in that room,” she said.
They only had one option, and it wasn't great.
The hotel staff told Barclay and her family the only place for them to sleep was the motel’s laundry room. “We were just in shock. We were like ‘seriously, the laundry room?'” she said. But then she realized they were out of options. The mom explained that she put a “broken” mattress on the floor, adding two pillows for the kids.
“When we got in there there was a laundry basket blocking the fire exit. Our beds were made up in front of the fire exit. God knows there could’ve been a fire in there and we wouldn’t have been accounted for and we wouldn’t have been able to get out. It was freezing in there. I had to sleep in my fur coat. It went pitch black in there. We weren’t given any toilet facilities, we weren’t offered a drink,” she said.
The family was finally able to get into their room around 4 a.m., but they couldn’t lock the door.
Travelodge apologized to the family.
The Mirror reported that Travelodge issued an apology to Barclay and her family.
“We apologise to Ms. Barclay and her family for their recent experience at Ashbourne Travelodge. On this occasion, we fell short of our usual high standards of customer care,” the statement read. “Unfortunately, the hotel experienced an isolated technical issue. As soon as this was brought to the hotel team’s attention, they promptly offered alternative accommodation at the closest Travelodge hotel. The customer has been offered a full refund and we will be offering them a complimentary stay as a gesture of goodwill.”
