Travelodge unveils ‘bizarre requests’ of the year

Travelodge has unveiled the top “bizarre requests” its teams have received from customers over the last 12 months. The hotel group, which operates 575 sites in the UK, said the range of requests varied by regions, as well as seasonally. Requests this year included: “Can you move my bed to the beach so that I can hear the Irish Sea during the night?”; “Can you add lights into my room to create the northern lights?”; “Can you look after 200 butterflies in your store room cooler for my wedding tomorrow?” and “Can you get me a gift bag full of soil from Anfield as a surprise for my husband?”. Travelodge noted that this year's requests also centred around social distancing. One customer, for example, rang York Layerthorpe Travelodge ahead of his booking and requested separate rooms for himself and his wife due to social distancing rules, adding that his wife “snores and he was desperate for a good night’s sleep”. Another customer asked a staff member at Lincoln City Centre Travelodge to “sing and record Happy Birthday into her phone so that she could play the recording every time she washed her hands to be Covid Safe”. In addition, a business customer at Leeds Central Travelodge was “so taken by the hotel’s 5ft TravelodgeProtect+ Covid-19 safety programme stand that he asked if he could use it as a back drop for all of his business zoom calls throughout his stay”. Another customer at Sunderland Travelodge asked staff if they could get a local printer to print his company logo onto 1,000 face masks. Shakila Ahmed, Travelodge Spokeswoman, said: “Annually we welcome millions of customers from all corners of the UK at our 575 hotels which are dotted across the country. Throughout the year, our hotel teams receive thousands of interesting requests from business and leisure guests. “Where possible, our hotel teams will go above and beyond to help customers as they relish a good challenge. Interestingly the requests change regionally, seasonally and this year we have even received interesting requests around social distancing.” She added: “However, there are some requests beyond their control such as: stopping the seagulls from squealing, switching off the Severn Bridge fog horn, identifying UFO hotspots and getting a grandmother an honorary degree from Oxford University.”