Joe Harker
A family claim their kids were 'traumatised' after having to sleep in a Travelodge laundry room after their keycard wouldn't get them into the room they'd booked.
Danielle Barclay and her husband Jamie, both 39, stayed at Travelodge Ashbourne, Derbyshire between 28 and 29 December with their two children after going to a wedding.
When they tried to get into their room they found their keycard wasn't working and sat in the corridor for an hour with their crying children, son Jensen, 12, and eight-year-old daughter Marlie.
The hotel had no available spare rooms so offered the Barclay family a spot in another Travelodge 20 miles away, and when this offer of alternative accommodation was turned down the family instead slept on a 'broken mattress' in the laundry room.
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They say this made Marlie 'upset and scared' before hotel maintenance staff were able to get them back into their room a few hours later.
Posting on TikTok, Danielle shared pictures of her family bedding down in the laundry room during what she called a 'horrendous night's stay'.
Her video split viewers with some saying the family was treated in a 'disgusting' way while others pointed out there was 'very little' else the hotel staff could have done since the family couldn't get into their room, there were no spare rooms and they turned down the offer of another room at a different Travelodge.
"We went to the wedding and got back at ten to twelve. The kids were getting tired and everything so we thought we'd come back and the wedding was finishing," she explained of her family predicament.
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"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. She 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."
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The mum said that taking the offer of going to the other Travelodge 20 miles away 'wasn't viable to us' since it was 2.00am and 'the kids were exhausted'.
Danielle said: "We were just in shock. We were like 'seriously, the laundry room? What are we going to do? They've got nowhere to put us'.
"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."
By 04.15am they were able to get back into their old room but couldn't lock the door, and she said that 'by that point the night had already been ruined'.
A Travelodge spokesperson said: "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.
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"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."