Travelodge acquires three Purple hotels

Budget hotel chain Travelodge has acquired the leases on three former Purple hotels adding 258 rooms to its 26,000 UK room stock.

The hotels at Sheffield Meadowhall, Derby and Tewkesbury, will be converted to the Travelodge brand and will continue to trade throughout, retaining all of the current 72 employees.

It brings Travelodge's "new openings" this year to seven already.

Paul Harvey, Travelodge's managing director of international and development, said all three of the properties were great additions to the brand and represented "over 10% of Travelodge's 2009 room target".

He said: "Each location will draw on both the business and leisure markets and we are confident of an early and strong uptake. The current economic climate lends itself to very competitive property prices and we are currently adding one going concern hotel to our brand every month."

"We expect this trend to continue and even grow with more struggling hotel companies selling assets to the Travelodge brand.

Beyond hotels we are also looking to convert housing projects, offices, factories and even railway stations to maintain our rapid growth programme."

The deal to sell the hotels was put in place by BDO Stoy Hayward, the administrators of the Real Hotel Company.

Shay Bannon, business restructuring partner at BDO Stoy Hayward, said: "We are pleased to confirm the sales of the hotels and are still working to actively market the remaining hotels in the group for sale with a view to achieving a successful outcome."

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By Gemma Sharkey

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