Days Inn by Wyndham Donington A50

The Days Inn Donington A50 is a roadside budget hotel on the westbound A50 at Shardlow, between Derby and East Midlands Airport, and it takes up to two dogs per booking. It is a functional overnight stop rather than somewhere to spend a weekend, and its 3.9/5 paw rating reflects a genuinely mixed picture from guests who have stayed here with a dog.

The charges are clearly set out. Pets cost £20 per pet, per stay, rather than per night, which makes a two-night break better value here than at many roadside hotels. Up to two pets are allowed and assistance dogs stay free. There is a £75 sanitation charge if the room needs extra cleaning afterwards, worth knowing before you arrive with a wet or muddy dog, and the hotel asks you to contact it before booking a longer stay with a pet because the cost can change.

Staff are the strongest part of the operation. Guests travelling with dogs describe them as helpful and quick to solve problems, delivering fans to hot rooms on request and offering to hold a ground-floor room for a return visit once it became clear the stairs to the first floor were awkward with dogs in tow. If you are booking with a dog, ask for a ground-floor room outright.

The caveats are real and they are about the rooms rather than the welcome. Cleanliness is the recurring complaint: guests with dogs have found carpets visibly stained and felt the pet charge steep for the condition of what they got. Rooms at the front are hot and noisy from the road, there is no air conditioning, and parking is charged separately. Food options within walking distance amount to a petrol station and a bakery.

Taken for what it is, a cheap stop near the airport that will take two dogs without fuss, it works. Book a ground-floor room away from the road and set your expectations at budget.