On this page (5 sections)
Which Travelodge, and how far out
First, what you are actually booking. The hotel branded Travelodge Stansted is the Travelodge Stansted Great Dunmow, about 7 miles and a 12-minute drive from the terminal. There is also a Travelodge Bishop's Stortford that booking sites push as a Stansted hotel, and it is off-airport too. Neither is on the airport's own hotel list, which is the five hotels close to the terminal, so the word "Stansted" here means the area, not the airport.
That distance is the whole story. The on-airport hotels are built around getting you to the terminal quickly: the Radisson Blu and Hampton by Hilton are a short walk, and the budget Premier Inn and Holiday Inn Express are about a mile out with a shuttle. The Travelodge is several times further, so it only makes sense once you know how you will cover that last stretch. The Stansted hotels hub compares the closer options.
No shuttle: how you reach the terminal
This is the key difference, and the thing to be clear about before booking. The Travelodge does not run an airport shuttle. Where the on-airport hotels lay on a bus, or sit within a walk, here you are on your own for the last 7 miles. You have three options: drive it, about 12 minutes; take a taxi; or use the public bus, the First Essex X20 or X30, which runs to and from the airport in around 20 minutes.
None of those is a dealbreaker if you have planned for it, but they change the sums and the timings. A taxi each way adds up, especially for a solo traveller, and the public bus means working to a timetable with luggage, which is awkward before a very early flight. If avoiding all of that matters, a hotel with its own shuttle or a walk to the terminal is the easier night. The ways to and from the airport generally are on the getting to Stansted page.
Free parking, but not park-and-fly
The Travelodge has free parking while you stay, which is genuinely useful if you are driving in for the night. But there is a catch that catches people out: you cannot leave the car there while you fly. It is not a park-and-fly hotel, so the free parking covers your stay, not your trip.
If your plan is to drive, sleep and leave the car for a week, you do that at the airport's own Long Stay car park, where the parking is paid and a free shuttle runs to the terminal every 15 minutes, taking about 10 minutes. So the realistic driver's routine is: night at the Travelodge, then in the morning drive the few miles to Long Stay, park, and ride the free shuttle in. If you would rather have the room and the parking on one booking, that is what the hotels with parking and park, stay and fly deals at the on-airport hotels do, which the Travelodge cannot.
What it costs, and the real comparison
It is a Travelodge, so the room is at the budget end and is usually the cheapest of the Stansted options, cheapest of all when you book well ahead. For a plain, clean room that is the appeal, and the hotel rates well with guests for what it is.
The honest point is that the room rate is not the all-in cost. With no shuttle, you add a taxi or bus fare each way, or airport parking if you drive, so the fair comparison is the room plus the transfer against a closer hotel's room. Do that and the gap to a Premier Inn or Holiday Inn Express a mile out, with a shuttle, often narrows to very little, and those put you far closer to the terminal. The Travelodge stays cheapest mainly for a driver who is parking at the airport anyway and treats the room as just a bed.
Is it worth it?
For a narrow group, yes. If you are driving and want the lowest room rate, and you are parking at the airport Long Stay regardless, the Travelodge is a cheap, decent bed for the night before. It is also fine if you are in Great Dunmow for its own sake, or you genuinely do not mind a taxi or the public bus to the terminal.
For most people, though, a closer hotel is the better call. Without a car it is the wrong choice: 7 miles out with no shuttle is a faff before a flight, and the budget Premier Inn or Holiday Inn Express a mile out, or the walk-to Radisson Blu and Hampton by Hilton, are far more convenient for not much more once you count the transfer. Price the all-in cost, not the room, and be honest about whether you have a car. The hotels hub lays every option side by side.