Well its now been two weeks since that fateful night (I travelled up on the 11th of April and today is the 26th April)
And I am pleased to say that I have settled the matter with Travelodge.
Here's the breakdown:
1) A telephone apology and email apology from customer services.
2) Refund of the £33 for the cost of the room on my credit card bill.
3) Reimbursed for my fuel costs for that night.
4) Reimbursed for my 2 x toll charges on the M6 @ £5.50 each way.
5) Loss of a days wages paid.
6) Some vouchers for a future stay.
7) Promise of an investigation into why things went so badly wrong.
So overall I think this is a success. Although obviously I would never have wanted to have had this happen to me.
I am pleased to say that Travelodge "Did all they could do" to make things right so I am happy to print / publish this.
I had quite a long telephone call - at least half an hour - with a guy from customer services. He was conciliatory and apologetic. He had done his background checks prior to calling and my story obviously checked out. As I said to him on the telephone I was not trying to "Milk the compo" and he agreed very readily. I said all I want is my out of pocket expense plus a good will gesture. So its with a positive thumbs up that I think I was fair and reasonable with them and they were fair and reasonable with me.
Any take away messages? I am now still going to be VERY cautious with any late night travel. This may mean that I will use local guest houses rather than TL if I intend to set off at 10pm again. But for times where sleep is not critcal and mix ups can be corrected in the light of day I will continue to use TL but will call ahead each time. I know thats no guarantee of a room BUT its better to try to secure a room.
I want to say thank you to those who gave great advice on this post.
I also hope my post helps other people.
But I also hope it is a fair reflection of the events that night, my initial anger, the comms with TL and of course the end result.
