'Travelodge is the UK's fastest growing and most recognised budget hotel company'.
The first budget hotel brand to launch in the UK in 1985, Travelodge now operates over 380 hotels (27,300 rooms) - ten in Ireland, three in Spain and the rest in the UK.
Six and a half million peopled stayed with Travelodge last year and 87% of reservations are currently made online at travelodge.co.uk, where room rates start at £19 a night. The chain employs 5,000 staff.
Growth: Travelodge has a target of 70,000 rooms (around 1,000 new hotels) by 2020 - this is the equivalent of opening a new hotel every two weeks. This will be achieved via organic growth including new build properties and regenerating existing buildings. Travelodge operates a leasehold model. Travelodge will reach its 70,000 room target via the conversion of existing hotels (one third), new build hotels (one third), and existing alternative buildings such as office blocks, residential or factories (one third).
Travelodge has 30 hotels in London with 4,749 rooms and intends to be the biggest by 2012 Olympics. Seven more hotels are currently under construction, taking Travelodge's room stock in London up to 5,515, representing a 4% share in the capital's hotel market.
With the exchange of contracts on the Clarendon Hotel in Shandwick Place, Edinburgh and the offical opening of a 64 room hotel in Learmonth Terrace, Travelodge has become the biggest hotel brand in Edinburgh. The budget hotel company has doubled its room stock in the last decade, adding four city cente locations to its existing operation.
To help seek new sites Travelodge is offering the general public a £25m Bounty in search of hundreds of new hotels across the country in a bid to open an unprecedented 500 additional UK hotels by 2020. Travelodge wants customers, staff and all of the general public to inform them of potential hotel sites by completing the form in the New Development section 'Introduce a site'.
Travelodge has over 20 new hotel openings planning in 2009. Locations include: Birmingham, Edinburgh, Gloucester, Bournemouth, Lowestoft, Scarborough and Newquay.
Low pricing strategy: Travelodge is a consumer champion brand, focused on driving prices across the hotel industry in order to encourage more people to use hotels. The budget chain’s low prices are delivered by commitment to operational efficiency and a low cost business model. This year alone, Travelodge will offer over £2 million rooms at £29 or less.
Online: 87% of reservations are made online at www.travelodge.co.uk. Rooms are available to book 12 months in advance and the site attacts 2.2 million visitors each month. In 2008 Travelodge.co.uk was identified by Hitwise UK as the most visited website in the 'Travel - Destination and Accommodation' category during 2008. As the only budget hotel company in the top 10, this recognition by Hitwise clearly indicates that as consumers are looking to cut their travel expenditure, Travelodge is the company they turn to.
People: Travelodge is committed to employing entry level staff through Job Centre Plus with the Local Employment Partnership (LEP). Over 90% of staff for all new London hotels have been recruited from the local unemployed, with 67% coming from the Job Centre's priority groups. Nationally, over 70% have been recruited through the LEP.
In London, Travelodge pioneered a new employment programme for its new hotel openings called Go Forward. Designed to assist Job Centre Plus priority group members back into work, the scheme is a targeted employment scheme in which a pool of candidates is chosen to take part in a four week training programme to give candidates the confidence and skill set they need to re-enter the workplace. To date four hotels in the capital have recruited through Go Forward and, work with employment providers, Travelodge aims to roll the scheme out nationwide.
Product: In a bid to win more customers in the run up to the Olympics, Travelodge launched a new room and Bar Cafe design in 2007. The new Travelodge room has been created in a contemporary style, incorporating a red, white and blue colour scheme with zebrano rich tone furnishings and mood setting coloured lighting. Also included in the room is a digital flat screen TV and Wi-Fi. The room's en-suite facilities have also been updated to reflect the new style. The new design is the first time the 'no frills' room has seen a wholesale change in design since the company's inception in 1985.
Brief History of Travelodge
Travelodge was the first budget hotel brand to launch in the UK. In 1985, Travelodge opened its first hotel on the A38, in Barton under Needlewood, before developing another six roadside hotels in its first year. Travelodge is now owned by private equity firm, Dubai International Capital.
Travelodge Action on Industry Issues
Olympics 2012 - The 2012 Olympics provides a once in a lifetime opportunity to promote British tourism and act as a catalyst for UK tourism growth. Travelodge is investing £140m in London between now and 2012, building 20 hotels and creating 750 new jobs.
A study commissioned by Travelodge exploring the impace of the Olympic Games on tourism valued the 2012 Olympics to the UK economy at potentially £3 billion - one billion more than Government forecasts.
Should UK tourism perform at the projected level, £3 billion extra spending could be generated by 6.6 million more visitors between 2007 and 2016. A market worth £14.2 billion today would rise to £24 billion in 2016 creating 75,000 more tourism jobs for the economy. These revenues could significantly reduce Britain's £18 billion tourism trade deficit tranforming UK tourism into a powerhouse industry of the future.
London Skills & Employment Board - Grant Hearn (CEO), was selected to advise the Mayor of London and national Government on the needs of London's dynamic hospitality industry as part of a new skills body for the capital - the 'London Skills and Employment' Board.
The Board consists of leading London business leaders, larger employers and education specialists and is conducting a root and branch review in order to publish a strategy and annual plan for adult (post 19 years) skills training and employment in London for the next ten years.
The Mayor was requested by the then Secretary of State for Education and Skills, Alan Johnson MP, to establish the new Board because the Government believed the Capital required a separate and customised skills strategy to ensure London was ready for 2012 Olympics and remained a world class city, driving the UK's economy.
Price Check - In February 2009 Travelodge launched a full frontal price attack on its rivals designed to steal up to 400,000 room nights of market share during 2009. The budget chain is targeting £29m of its competitors' revenues by exposing rip-off hotel practices and highlighting the major price gap between itself and the UK's major hotel brands.
Travelodge will use an independant price monitoring company to price check over 1,000 of its main brand competitors everyday to stay ahead on price. If any branded hotel rate across the country drops below a local Travelodge price, new analytical software will make the budget chain's price team aware, allowing them to adjust the rate in minutes. This intensified focus on price will see the budget chain invest over £13m in price cuts in 2009 to win the growing population of mid and full service customers that are looking to save money on travel.
Business Account Card - Offering Travelodge business customers a credit facility for the first time, the Business Account Card will provide more generous terms than any competitor in the budget sector.
With eight weeks credit available, Travelodge will be doing all that it can to assist companies with their cash flow in the current economic climate, as well as offering prices substantially lower than its competitors. The Business Account Card has been developerd in response to requests from the thousands of businesses who have contacted Travelodge in the last six months looking to switch from midmarket hoteliers to the budget sector.
