Travelodge Sheffield Central

Worst nightmare I have ever experienced. Customer service was horrible as the staff were very rude and unhelpful. I would advice anyone, there are other hotels in that area you are better off going elsewhere.

I was in sheffield, due to attend my graduation ceremony the next morning at Sheffield Hallam University so I used travel-lodge's on-line booking system to book a room for my parents who were to attend my graduation.
They deducted the money immediately from my account but this was all fine as they sent me a confirmation email.

All for me to get there with my parents to check in and we were told by the girl at the desk that there was no booking under my name, I said that wasn't possible and I showed her my confirmation email then she went off into their office and came back a good couple of minutes later to tell me that she could not check my parents in in as apparently she had just spoken to her manager who said not to allow check in. So I asked what was the reason why and she said they just would not check us in. I could not understand how they could just tell me that for no reason they would not be allowed to check in after the money had been taken. So I asked to speak to her manager and she refused. We then asked for a refund since she wanted us to leave and then she said she was not authorised to do refunds and despite the fact that possibly we had paid them with the last money we had and that it was almost 11pm at the time , they said that was our problem and not theirs. In the process of trying to understand why they decided at the 11th hour not to honour the booking and the confirmation and where they expected us to go without our refund, they threatened to call the police to throw us out, which they did. 2 policemen came in after about 30mins. The police asked them if we had paid and they said yes. The police then asked us what had happened, when we told them they said they recognised that the company had a problem but we just had to go lodge somewhere else till the next day when we could take it up with the manager because they said they would not have us stay there.

So we went up the road to ibis hotel who were much cheaper even and had way better customer service and really nice staff who cared about their customers. The room was nice and clean and my parents had only good things to say about them.

When we came back the next day for out refund, all the staff who had been there the previous night were standing around the counter and whispering to themselves and pointing at us in an extremely rude way.

We asked to see the manager to ask for our money back, two women came out and when we asked why we were refused entry after we had paid and the confirmation had been sent. They started telling porkies. I knew they were lying and the information they were giving us was false because they were both saying completely different things, giving us contradicting information, but we just decided we could not waste our time talking to them any more. When they processed the refund, the lady tried to refund us less than what we paid. My conclusion is that they are dubious and I will not be recommending them to anyone I know. I have even just found out that other customers have the same story of paying and being chucked out unfairly and refusing them a refund.
Eventually my parents stayed at the ibis which is about a minute away and with no extra charge their luggage was stored for about 4 hours after checkout. They were lovely and I recommend them instead.