The Lodge By Macdonald

I have just spent two nights at The Lodge. The best thing about this hotel, as far as I am concerned, is the price. I paid 75 pounds per night including breakfast. My room was of good size, clean and functional. It was a bit cold at night, though. There was a temperature control on the wall, but it did not work. The worst thing is the location. On the map it may look close to the city centre, but the hotel stands near the junction of very busy roads with no traffic lights, and I thought it was too dangerous to try to cross them, especially after dark. As a result, I had to use a taxi whenever I wanted to go out. It cost me 4-5 pounds to get to the city centre. The hotel does not have a restaurant, though bar snacks are available at lunchtime and between 7.30 and 9.30 pm. At other times you cannot get food, and there are no shops or eating places near by. This is very inconvenient if you need to eat late at night. I did not feel that the saving I made on the room rate compensated for all the inconvenience of this hotel. I will never go back to The Lodge.

I stayed at the Lodge by Macdonald in November 2006 for 3 nights. The room was of a high standard - very clean and with a lovely bathroom and huge towels. Breakfast each morning was excellent - a wide variery of continental breakfast choices. Having read some reports on trip advisor I was concerned that the hotel may be rather noisy - this was not the case even though there was a rugby match on in Cardiff on the Saturday and the hotel was fully booked. My other concern was the location of the hotel. However, a taxi from the hotel into the city centre cost £5 as did a taxi to the Cardiff Bay area and the Millennium Centre. The staff were very friendly and helpful. Only one complaint - the bar prices were rather steep!

I stayed in this hotel on a Friday and Saturday night in Nov 06. I found the staff pleasant and friendly, the room was nice and large and the place was generaly good value. However, the list of problems I found were numerous and i did speak to the Hotel Duty Manager. We paid £167 for 2 people over 2 nights for bed and breakfast. The breakfast was good and the restaurant is great as it's right out in the open and is very trendy. The hotel was extremely difficult to find due to it's name. Many cab drivers thought we meant McDonald's burgers and twice we had to change cabs as the driver had no idea where the hotel was! It's very badly sign posted and most people get lost trying to find the entrance. TV channel choice (in this day of many digital channels) was poor. They had BBC news 24 but no music channels, no E4, nothing to keep younger people interested. We had to ask for extra pillows as they weren't provided in the room. The shower is fantastic and makes you want to stay in there all day! Having no nets or blinds at the windows is a bit of a drawback when you come out of the shower as it means you have to keep the heavy curtains closed all the time; this is difficult when the sun is shining outside and it's a beautiful day. It also means that anyone walking past can look into your room to see any valuables (we stayed on the ground floor). Overall this hotel was very nice, modern and good value for money.

When we eventually found the hotel after bad directions we arrived and the Duty Manager was really rude to my wife as i parked the car. The rooms in the hotel are nice but the customer service is very poor. Breakfast is a continental breakfast which is really good because you can eat as much as you like. The hotel is used for a lot of Stag and Hen Partys so there is a lot of noise late on and i mean a lot of noise. I would only recommend this if you are a very deep sleeper.

We booked this hotel online for a band tour and it's perfect. Rooms sleep up to 4 adults, with 2 comfy double beds, and we got a good deal at £80 per night. The hotel is very clean and modern-on-a-budget. Free tea, coffee and juice 24 hours a day are great, breakfast was much better than expected, with a great range. The only possible downside is that breakfast is served 7-9am, needless to say some of the band overslept and missed it! The one big problem with this hotel is the location. It's really only 5 mins by car / 20 mins on foot from the centre, but with gps, AA directions and a map we couldn't find it, and ended up in the Novotel asking for directions! Apparently the road has only recently been named and our gps wouldn't recognise the postcode - so be warned! We eventually found it on the sliproad off a main roundabout, set back from a Volkswagon garage - so keep your eyes peeled!

My Wife and I stayed here on a Monday-Thursday break in August. 1st impressions were good. very clean - apparently had been open for about a year then. Nice friendly welcome from staff. Free parking is a bonus. Location is not in the city centre but is between the centre and the bay area. We generally used the car to get about but did walk into the city centre a couple of times - about 20 min walk (depending on where you're going!) and we did find a 'safe route' for pedestrians. we were on the top floor (theres only 2 floors) and the rom was really great - 2 huges beds, lots of space, LCD TV, decent bathroom, good powe shower (no bath). Other good stuff to mention: free local calls from the room. no conventional room service but the hotel has an arrangement with a couple of local take-away service restaurants. you just phone the restaurant (free) they somehow know you're caling from the hotel, you order what you want, deliver it to reception, and reception bring it up to you with cutlery etc. we tried this and ordered pizza. worked well, but was a bit too long of a wait (45 min i think). the hotel put the cost of the take-away on our bill. s quite convienient. there is free tea/coffee making facilities in the room, but easier was to pop down 1 floor in the lift and pick up a drink from the free drinks area (apple juice, orange juice, fresh milk, espresso/cappacunno/latte/hot choc etc, tea) also down there was a vending machine where you could buy choc bars crisps etc for normal prices (ie not like mini bar prices). Breakfast was included and was help yourself to cerials/croissants/yoghurts/toast and so an and also to english cooked breakfast. No waiters, just seat and serve yourself. All in all a most enjoyable stay and the model of the hotel has imo got a lot going for it - free parking, free local calls, the take-a-way cum room service idea, the free juice/coffree bar.

I stayed at the Lodge by Macdonald for 1 night in March this year, I booked this as I thought the rate was good and was reasonably close to the city centre, what a fox pass! I walked there, suitcase trailing behind, from the train station, having lived near Cardiff for most of my childhood, I thought I could find the way, which I did, but it took nearly 1/2 hour (and I walk pretty fast!). When I got to reception, I was asked to take a seat as they were a bit busy; the fire alarm was going off intermittently, which was very loud to say the least. After about 20 mins, the reception staff finally realised that I was still there and asked me to come back over to the counter. Check-in was swift and they did apologise for keeping me waiting. The room was very nice, although the view was of a brick wall! Not a problem though as I wasn't there for the spectacular views. In the morning, I entered the shower room to find the shower was freezing cold; I called reception who said that it would be fixed in 30 mins, not much help when you have a train to catch in 1 hour! After a VERY quick and VERY cold shower, I went down to get a bit of breakfast which was ok, but there was no hot food available (only the usual continental breakfast), all in all, the choice was good though. On check out, I mentioned again about the shower problems, hoping for an apology, but was just told that an engineer was working on it! For the price, I could have stayed at the Park Plaza or the proper Macdonald Hotel which are both MUCH better.