Declining Travelodges?

[mtbc]

Travelodge is a UK chain of rather cheap motels, not even quite upscale enough to have a breakfast bar. Admittedly, for work purposes I am used to nicer hotels: in Britain my last was The Principal York which was very agreeable (apart from mediocre coffee) and, in traveling in the US for work, mostly as a defense contractor for some years, I enjoyed the flights, airport rental cars and hotels as we visited various military bases and corporate sites.

Tonight I stay in the Travelodge Caerphilly hotel. It is rather peculiar: in our family room, sleeping four, we have a decently sized bathroom with bathtub and integral shower head, plenty of space to walk around, reasonable beds, large mirrors, colorful clean curtains; the room seems clean and well-maintained. Still, the room is oddly lacking. We have a tiny not-widescreen television, only three accessible electrical outlets (of which the heater takes one, the kettle another), no table even at a bedside, so no clock, informational booklet, notepad, whatever. In one corner there is a horizontal surface fixed to the wall as if to function like a shallow desk, with a single plastic-seated chair. The aforementioned kettle is not cordless, nor large, so it takes two unpluggings to make the four of us a tea or coffee each.

I thus find the room to be a puzzling mix of adequacy and extreme cheapness. Travelodges do vary somewhat and this one is above average. I think it was Knutsford that afforded a close-up view of a seagull-filled roof and Chorley that had a pleasant cat. But, I think this room is the most incongruously mixed one that I have seen, making me wonder if it captures a snapshot before the effects of cost-cutting have had time to settle. Perhaps this sample is just too random: after all, the room next to ours features a widescreen television, cordless kettle and even a bottle opener yet no bathtub.