Travelodge to build 35 new hotels in 2011
Travelodge is to build 35 hotels in the UK this year with the creation of 700 new jobs, the company has announced.
The new properties, representing 3,667 bedrooms, will be developed at a cost of £300m. They will boost the company's portfolio to 495 hotels and nearly 36,000 rooms.
Travelodge now plans to have 1,100 hotels and 100,000 rooms open by 2025.
Guy Parsons, Travelodge's chief executive, said the new hotels were the result of the company's commitment to expansion during the recession, while other companies put their development on hold.
"Last year we exchanged on 96 sites, making it a record year. Fifty-two of these exchanges were part of the biggest transaction in the hotel sector since 2008 with the pub chain Mitchells & Butlers.
"As part of the recession, we have successfully acquired superior sites owing to lower market property prices, which otherwise would not have been available for hotel use."
The newly built hotels will include eight in London, with three opening this year, making Travelodge the largest single hotel brand in the capital by the spring.
There are also three hotels being built in Birmingham and two in Manchester, as well as developments in Cardiff, Liverpool, Bristol, Lancaster, Canterbury, Cambridge and Hull. The costal locations of Morecambe, Paignton, Ramsgate, Portishead and New Brighton will be the location of a further five hotels.
Over the past five years, Travelodge has focused its development in city centres, away from traditional roadside locations. Today motorway and trunk road sites represent just 25% of the company's hotel stock.
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By Janet Harmer
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