A man has received an apology after a hotel stay led to months of frustration and a delayed refund.
Daniel Brown said he felt "lied to" and "ignored" by Travelodge when he chased them about a refund he was promised at the start of September.
Mr Brown said he was told by Travelodge his refund had been processed, but by the end of October, he had still not received his refund.
Despite multiple attempts to contact Travelodge to ask for evidence of the refund being credited to his account, Mr Brown claims he was ignored by customer services.
"They claimed they had emailed about it, but I checked my emails, including my junk folder, and I've not found anything.
"They never replied to my accusation of lying and asking them when they had offered the refund.
"I asked for proof and they've ignored me.
"It's an unacceptable and disgusting way to treat customers."
Travelodge has since apologised, blaming the delay on an undetected processing error, and confirmed that customer service failed to respond to Mr Brown’s follow-up emails.
The refund dispute began after Mr Brown, from Norwich, raised concerns over the company’s booking process during a stay at its Kidderminster hotel.
He was travelling to Bewdley when he discovered there were no buses running on a Sunday.
He decided to stay overnight in Kidderminster before continuing his journey the next day.
Mr Brown said hotel staff told him that rooms could only be booked online, even though he was already at the hotel.
He said: "It was a bit ridiculous as I was standing in the hotel reception.
"I asked if they could just check me into a room, but they said I had to book online."
With no mobile reception, he used the hotel’s wi-fi to book a room.
Mr Brown said: "I clicked 'tonight' when selecting the room dates, but when I went to the desk to check in, they said they couldn't find the booking and they were actually fully booked for the night.
"The booking system had defaulted to the next available day without me realising, so I'd actually booked the wrong night."
Hotel staff told him they could not amend the booking and advised him to contact customer services.
He was informed over the phone that a room was available but it was a disabled-access room and would cost an additional £1.
Mr Brown said he was prepared to pay the extra charge, but was also told he would need to pay a £12.50 fee to change the booking date.
He said: "I was told that I needed to pay the fee as I'd not selected the amendable option on the booking system.
"It was ridiculous, why would I select an amendable booking when I was stood in the reception of the hotel I wanted to stay in that night?
"I had no intention of changing my mind."
He described the phone call as frustrating, saying: "It was like banging my head against a wall."
Mr Brown ultimately paid the fee and stayed at the hotel, explaining that it was 10pm and he was exhausted from travelling.
He said: "The whole ordeal lasted about 45 minutes.
"I will be purposefully avoiding Travelodge in future."
Mr Brown confirmed he had received his refund on November 4 along with a goodwill gesture.
He said: "Am I happy with that? I guess so. But I'm extremely unhappy with the process that arrived here over the last four months. I made that clear to them.
"It was never about the money really. It was their reluctance to accept how awful they had handled the ridiculous situation they had created."
A spokesperson for Travelodge said: "We would like to sincerely apologise to Mr Brown for his experience. We recognise that the delay in resolving this matter fell well below our usual standards.
"We have spoken to Mr Brown, and offered him a goodwill gesture alongside the full refund, which he has accepted."
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