Travelodge, the UK's fastest growing hotel company, today acquired the leases on three former Purple hotels adding 258 rooms to its 26,000 UK room stock.
The leases on the three properties located at Sheffield Meadowhall, Derby and Tewkesbury will transfer to the Travelodge brand imminently and the hotels will continue to trade with of all its existing employees moving to the budget chain.
The conversion of these existing hotels with bring the budget chains 2009 openings total up to seven and will mean 17 going concern hotels have been converted to the Travelodge brand in just 17 months.
Paul Harvey, Travelodge's Managing Director of International and Development, said, "All three of these properties are great additions to the Travelodge brand and represent over 10% of our 2009 room target. 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, Paul Harvey said."
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."
The Sheffield hotel (103 rooms and bar cafe) is located adjacent to Meadowhall, one of the north of Englands biggest shopping centres, and is just three miles from city centre. The Tewkesbury property (71 rooms and bar cafe) is located on the edge of the Cotswolds, providing a very strong leisure market. The Derby hotel (84 rooms and bar cafe) is located opposite the Pride Park football stadium and is two miles from the city centre, catering for both business and leisure markets.