Travelodge, the UK's fastest growing budget hotel company, today announces the exchange on five UK based hotels, adding almost 500 rooms to the budget hotels portfolio, with an investment of £31 million.
The hotels, located in Newquay, Lancaster, Blackpool, Hounslow and Birmingham Perry Barr will all follow Travelodge's preferred leasehold model.
Commenting on the announcement, Paul Harvey, Travelodge's Property Director, said:
"The exchange on these properties demonstrates that our development pipeline is ambitious and that we are on track to meet the target set out in January - to add 4000 new rooms to our portfolio by the end of the year. This exchange also extends our footprint to 3 central locations in Blackpool, a key tourist destination in the UK.
"Consumers are demanding accommodation at affordable prices but are refusing to compromise on quality the credit crunch is forcing people to review their spending habits. This underlines our core values of providing accessible and reasonably priced rooms to as wide a customer base as possible."
Travelodge intends to treble the size of its estate by 2020, targeting a 10% share of the UK hotel
market. The company currently operates over 330 hotels in the UK and served over six million customers in 2007 - encouraging 500,000 more low income families to use its hotels than ever before.
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Further information
Nick Dines 07827 243921
Travelodge
Astrid Josephson 07799 012370
Tracey Little
Finsbury
About Travelodge
The first budget hotel brand to launch in the UK in 1985, Travelodge now operates 337 hotels (over 23,500 rooms) - nine in Ireland, three in Spain and the rest in the UK. Travelodge plans to grow its estate to 70,000 rooms approximately 1000 hotels by 2020.
Six and a half million people 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 and is owned by Dubai International Capital, who acquired the organisation from Permira in 2006.