A Guardian reader booked and paid for a Travelodge in London's King's Cross six weeks in advance for herself and her husband, who has heart disease and dementia, having confirmed an 11pm arrival time with the hotel. On arrival, staff said the hotel had overbooked because of a football match and their room was no longer available, leaving them and two other affected parties waiting in a lobby full of noisy fans before being relocated to a Travelodge in Shoreditch after 1am, by which point the husband was distraught and the reader exhausted.

Travelodge initially told the Guardian's consumer champion the issue was an "unexpected maintenance problem" rather than overbooking, and admitted an internal error meant the reader's two complaint letters never reached the right team. The couple had chosen the King's Cross hotel specifically to catch an early Eurostar the next morning, and only after the case was raised with the press did Travelodge refund the £179 booking cost and pay £200 in compensation, despite having previously ignored both complaints.