Travelodge teams up with Aldi on hotel sites

Budget hotel group Travelodge has teamed up with low-cost supermarket Aldi to develop mixed use hotel and retail sites.

The firms are developing premises in Middlesbrough and Newquay, in order to meet their growth targets and develop their growing market share.

In Newquay, Cornwall, Travelodge is creating a 74-bedroom hotel above an Aldi store, and a 55-room hotel above a store in Middlesbrough. 

In line with Travelodge’s normal business practices, Aldi has the freehold of both sites and Travelodge will take a lease.

The hotel group has invested £2m at the Middlesbrough site, which opens at the end of November and £2.9m in Newquay, which will launch next autumn.

Managing director for development at Travelodge Paul Harvey said the partnership sent out a “clear signal” that the budget sector in the UK would make the most of the opportunities presented by the economic downturn.

He said: “The credit crunch is freeing up sites for development that previously would not have been viable for either of us.  I am sure that we will continue to work closely together over the forthcoming years.”

But the move was branded as “bizarre” by hotel analysts.

Pamela Carvell, hotel marketing consultant, said: “Although a lot of hotels have an alliance with supermarkets, such as Tesco clubcard points, I find this partnership a bit bizarre.

“From a capital investment point of view as developers it must have benefits to both parties, such as shared car park attendants. But as for the consumer, I don’t know if Travelodge’s business traveller would welcome staying next to a supermarket- it’s not quite the same as a Premier Inn being next to a Beefeater.”

Travelodge now operates 339 hotels in the UK, with eight in Ireland and three in Spain, bringing the total to 350.

Travelodge plans to grow its estate to 70,000 rooms (approximately 1000 hotels) by 2020.

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Budget hotels show resilience to credit crunch>>

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By Gemma Sharkey

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