A visitor to Travelodge Blackburn has told of having to 'change the sheets, vacuum the room and empty the bins' due to coronavirus restrictions.

Coronavirus restrictions now mean at Travelodge housekeeping staff cannot enter the rooms.

Travelodge said they did rectify the issues the customer ‘raised to her satisfaction’ during her stay. They also ‘apologised and refunded three nights of her stay and offered to change her room which she declined to do.”

The guest who did not wish to be named said, “We are staying here for a few days and we realised that after the first two days the sheets were not getting changed and the bathroom was not being cleaned.

“We have to go and fetch all our towels and are having to refill all the hand washes ourselves. You have to clean your own bathroom.

“If we had known this there is no way we would stay here.

“If you are just booking you don’t read the background really. They should make this clear on their front page.”

The guest added they also had to sweep their own floor and were handed a vacuum cleaner to do so, “I had vacuum my own room. I touched the same hoover as they did. I have been emptying the bin myself too

“What is the point of coming to a hotel if you can’t even get a change in sheets? They could just ask you to leave the room and they change it. I thought during the pandemic there would be an extra effort to wipe surfaces clean.”

“Since I made I point they left notes that rooms won’t be cleaned if you stay more than seven nights.”

In terms of a refund this was due to the guest complaining of the hot water, “I was told I would get a three-day refund but that was due to there not being any hot water.”

The Travelodge website states under their Travelodge Protect section that housekeeping teams will not enter rooms.

A Travelodge statement read, ‘‘We are very sorry to hear that the customer was not happy with her recent stay with us. We did rectify the issues the customer raised to her satisfaction during her stay. We apologised, refunded three nights of her stay and we offered to change her room which she declined to do.

“The safety and security of our customers and staff is paramount to us and we have invested in a multi-million Covid-19 programme in line with Government guidance called TravelodgeProtect+. This programme is designed to keep our customers and staff safe and protected.

“As part of TravelodgeProtect+ we do not enter customers’ rooms unless they are staying for an extended period of time, we provide masks and gloves for our hotel teams to wear whilst at work as required, and we also provide our hotel team members with hand sanitiser and soap and water so that they can regularly wash their hands, which is assessed to be a better control measure than wearing gloves''.

The Government’s website which advises hotel and guest accommodation says that a guest can be requested to leave the room before any cleaning takes place.

It states, “Consider the ability to perform housekeeping, whilst maintaining social distancing, if the guest is in the room they should be requested to leave the room, unless they are self-isolating.

“When cleaning a room, focus on cleaning of all hand contact surfaces in rooms. This could include, but is not limited to, light switches; bedside tables; remote controls; taps; flush handles and toilet seats; door handles – inside and out; hair dryer handles; iron and ironing board, trouser press; safe buttons; wardrobe doors; mini bar handle; kettle handle and lid; heater and/or air conditioner controls.

It adds, “Towels and linens should be washed in accordance with washing instructions. The frequency of the cycle of cleaning and in-room services should be reviewed to take into account different lengths of stay.”