I booked a room at Travelodge in Greenwich last August or September as I was due to compete in this year’s London Marathon in April and paid upfront. I arrived around 9pm and was told there had been a problem with the booking system and it was full. The receptionist said a room was being held for me at Travelodge Greenwich High Road – a little under a mile away. It was further from the start and cheaper and, although I was trying not to spend much time walking before the marathon, I desperately needed a good night’s sleep before the event, so I set off.
“We’re full,” the concierge said when I arrived. It turned out there was a room. I think it may have had issues with temperature control, but I was offered it anyway. By then it was nearly 11pm. I was told it might be warm but I could open the window and use a fan. I did manage to get some sleep in my noisy sauna.
It didn’t completely ruin my race and I managed a personal best of 2:39:17. But I’ll always wonder what I could have done on a better night’s sleep.
CR, Aberdeen, Scotland
Overbooking is (albeit unofficially) standard practice at airport and large city hotels (on the basis that many guests may not turn up) although it was not clear whether you were a victim of this, or it was, as you were told, a problem with the booking system.
The company tells us you had not been in touch at any stage. But it agrees this should not have happened, and that its regional director has apologised. It says: “Our room in Greenwich had to be taken offline because of a fault which occurred that afternoon. We reserved CR a room in our hotel 0.4 miles away, and they were expecting him. The room wasn’t faulty, but it may have been hot because of the unprecedented hot weather that weekend. There was a genuine misunderstanding at hotel level as the reception team was trying to give him tips on how to keep the room cool.”
You have now received a full refund.
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