2022 TRAVELODGE BIZARRE REQUESTS AUDIT
RESULTS
Can you get ordained today to officiate my wedding?
I would like an extra room to use as a wardrobe?
Can you teach me to dance Bhangra
How fidgety is the Fidgety Pie?
What time does the BA i360 take off?
Can you take Boujee, my Chow Chow shopping in Knightsbridge, whilst I make a sales pitch?
These are just some of the customer bizarre requests, Travelodge hotel staff members have been asked during the last 12 months
Today, Travelodge, one of the UK’s largest hotel chains reveals the top 25 most
interesting and bizarre customer requests that it’s 581 UK hotel teams have received during the last 12 months. Travelodge has hotels dotted across the length and breadth of the UK in all major cities and towns and annually welcomes nearly 19 million* business and leisure customers at its hotels.
Detailed below are more fascinating requests to make the 2022 audit:
Can you arrange for me to wear Meghan Markle’s Giorgio Armani dress from the fashion museum for my 40th birthday party?
How holy is the water at the Jesus Green Lido?
Can you arrange for Aunt Bessie to give my wife a cookery lesson, she can’t make Yorkshire puddings?
Can you take me for a spin in a Red Bull Formula One racing car?
My husband wants to visit a Norfolk broad, which one do you recommend?
This year, Travelodge has experienced a stampede of customers checking into its hotels across all corners of the UK, following the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions. This customer flurry has also resulted in Travelodge hotel teams receiving an influx of interesting requests and questions from their customers during their stay. Topics have ranged from place names, local dishes, customs and traditions across the diverse regions that make up the United Kingdom to random requests.
This year’s audit has revealed a bigger interest in the Royal Family than ever before. One customer staying at Bath Waterside Travelodge asked the Receptionist if she could contact The Fashion Museum and borrow Bath’s 2021 Dress of The Year – which was the black silk Giorgio Armani dress that Meghan Markle wore for the famous Oprah interview. The customer wanted to wear this dress to her 40th birthday party. Another customer staying at Canterbury Chaucer Central Travelodge was disappointed to hear that King Charles III would not be teaching any lessons at The Kings School Canterbury during their stay in the historic city. Whilst a young boy wanted the hotel team at London Waterloo Travelodge to arrange a surprise garden afternoon tea for his grandfather with Paddington Bear
Whilst a confused guest staying at Edinburgh Central Travelodge asked the hotel manager to clarify to whether he had to bow to Edinburgh Zoo’s famous resident Brigadier Sir Nils Olav - a king penguin who is the mascot and colonel-in-chief of the Norwegian King's Guard.
Travelodge hotel teams have also been inundated with food, cooking and celebrity chef requests. One couple staying at Newquay Seafront Travelodge called ahead of their stay and asked if the assistant hotel manager could arrange a private beachfront barbeque with celebrity chef Rick Stein. Another family staying at Birmingham Central Bull Ring Travelodge asked for details for the best local delicatessen, where they could purchase jars of Colonel Mustard to take back home to America as gifts for their family. The Fidgetiness of Derbyshire’s Fidgety Pie was also called into question by one customer recently staying at Derby Park Pride Travelodge.
Another customer staying at Aberdeen Airport Travelodge was shocked to hear that you could not catch a Cullen Skink and that this was the name of a soup as opposed to a fish. A couple staying at Swansea Central Travelodge were relieved to hear that the country’s famous cuisine Laverbread was not actually made from volcanic lava.
This year’s audit also revealed a growing trend of customers asking hotel teams especially in the northern regions such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool and Cardiff to record voice messages on their phones because they love their regional accents. A receptionist at Edinburgh Haymarket Travelodge was asked to send a voice note pretending to be Sean Connery to a customer’s Grannie as a birthday surprise and a hotel Bar Cafe Supervisor at Liverpool Central Exchange Street Travelodge was asked to record a customer’s voicemail in the voice of the late Cilla Black as this was their favourite celebrity. The customer specifically asked the team member to say ‘Surprise, Surprise’.
Shakila Ahmed, Travelodge Spokeswoman said: “Following a very difficult two years, Britons have taken full advantage this year to enjoy everything they have missed during the pandemic and this includes holidays and business trips.
We have experienced a significant increase in bookings across our 581 UK Travelodge hotels this year, with Britons taking more short breaks and turning a concert or sporting event into a Minication. Also with more Britons holidaying on British shores than ever before our hotel teams have also received a high volume of interesting requests and questions especially around attractions, locations, local dishes, customs and traditions across our diverse British regions.
Where possible, our hotel teams will go above and beyond to help customers as they relish a good challenge. However, there are some requests beyond their control such as getting ordained to officiate a wedding, getting the London Eye to rotate in an anti-clockwise formation, programming all the traffic lights in York to be green at midday for a bride to get to the church on time and taking a customer for a spin in the Red Bull Formula One racing car around Milton Keynes famous roundabouts.”
Listed below are the top 25 most interesting and bizarre customer requests received by Travelodge hotel teams during the last 12 months.