A family was forced to sleep in a Travelodge laundry room, leaving their children devastated and emotionally affected by the experience.
A family from Derbyshire has shared a distressing experience after being forced to sleep in a laundry room at a Travelodge hotel.
The situation has left their children feeling traumatized.
The family consisted of parents Danielle and Jamie Barclay and their two children, Jensen and Marlie.
They faced a series of unfortunate events during their stay at the Travelodge Ashbourne.
The Barclay family arrived late from a wedding.
The Barclay family was in Ashbourne for a wedding on December 28.
After the event, they returned to the hotel late at night, expecting to rest in their booked room.
However, when they tried to use their keycard, it would not work.
This situation quickly became stressful for the family, especially for the children.
Jensen, age 12, and Marlie, age 8, were tired and upset after a long day.
The family waited in the corridor for assistance.
After discovering that the keycard was malfunctioning, the family waited in the hotel corridor for about an hour.
They hoped that hotel staff would help them solve the issue.
Danielle mentioned that their daughter was crying, worried that they would not be able to retrieve their belongings from the room.
Meanwhile, Jensen tried to rest on the floor, clearly exhausted.
When a hotel staff member finally came to assist them, they found that there were no other available rooms in the hotel.
The staff offered the family a chance to stay at another Travelodge located 20 miles away.
However, at 2 AM, this option was not feasible for the tired family.
They declined the offer, hoping for a solution closer to their current location.
“The key card wouldn’t work, my husband had tried it.
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 but kept trying and trying and trying.
“She rang the manager and the manager was apparently in Belgium and couldn’t really do much to help and there was nobody else to help her.
“We’d been sat on the corridor floor for like an hour.
My daughter was crying and upset because she was worrying and panicking that we weren’t going to get our things out the room.
“My son was exhausted, he was laid on the corridor floor trying to get some sleep.”
Family and children have to sleep in Travelodge hotel’s laundry room over broken keycard
With no other choice, the hotel staff suggested that the family could sleep in the laundry room.
Danielle was shocked at this suggestion but felt they had no other options.
Staff provided a broken mattress and some bedding for the children.
Danielle described the mattress as uncomfortable and inadequate, stating, “We were just in shock. We were like, ‘seriously, the laundry room?'”
“She put the broken mattress on the floor, put a quilt over it, and two pillows for the kids.
For us, there was obviously nothing else.
We had a quilt on the floor with a pillow. A broken mattress on the laundry room floor. Just ridiculous.”
The family settled into the laundry room, but the conditions were far from ideal.
Danielle expressed her frustration at having to sleep on the floor with a quilt.
She reflected on how upsetting it was for her children to be in such a situation.
Marlie felt upset and scared about the ordeal.
Morning brought relief as they regained access.
Fortunately, by 4:15 AM, hotel maintenance managed to fix the keycard issue, and the family was able to return to their origianl room.
However, the damage was done, and their night had already been ruined.
Danielle noted that they could not even lock their room door upon returning, which added to their distress.
Response from Travelodge
In response to the family’s complaints, a spokesperson for Travelodge expressed regret over the situation.
A Travelodge spokesperson said: “We apologize 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.
“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.”
