• One million man hours, 60,000 tins of paint and 30,000 beds go into refit programme
• Travelodge to refit 50 rooms every day for the next 18 months
Travelodge, one of the UK’s leading hotel brands, is today firing the starting gun on a £57 million refurbishment programme that will completely transform the look and feel of more than 30,000 of its rooms in just 18 months.
Travelodge’s refurbishment team, supported by the hotel chain’s in-house maintenance team referred to as the ‘MIB’ (Men in Black), will kick start the renovation programme today by starting work on nearly 2,000 rooms at seven key Travelodge hotels which includes the company’s flagship hotel - London Covent Garden (641 rooms). The other Travelodge hotels are:
• London City Road (392 rooms)
• London Southwark (202 rooms)
• Gatwick Airport (400 rooms)
• Birmingham Yardley (64 rooms)
• Hampshire Alton Fourmarks (50 rooms)
• Lincoln Thorpe on the Hill (52 rooms)
The refurbishment programme is part of a £223 million* investment to help further grow the business, strengthen Travelodge’s brand offering and ensure consumers obtain the best value in the marketplace.
Grant Hearn, Travelodge CEO said: “Today is a momentous day at Travelodge, we are very excited to being rolling out our £57 million refurbishment programme across the estate. Refurbishing 30,000 hotel rooms is no easy task but our in-house maintenance team have been planning with military precision to ensure there is no disturbance to our day to day business, whilst this work is undertaken.
“This investment is a great leap forward in terms of our product offering, and it signals our intention to make Travelodge the smart choice for consumers as well as positioning us as the UK’s best value hotel chain.”
The revamp follows 12 months of extensive research with Travelodge customers to create an inviting, functional and relaxing room for business and leisure travellers.
The new Travelodge room includes an upgraded new luxury king size bed which is deemed in the industry as the ‘Rolls Royce’ of beds and is used predominately by luxury hotels worldwide. The bed is produced by royal warrant holders Sleepeezee Ltd who are renowned internationally for their experience and craftsmanship in producing the most luxurious beds that money can buy.
The Travelodge Dreamer boasts a 952 individual pocket sprung mattress. Each individual spring is designed to follow the natural contour of an individual’s body in order to provide the correct amount of support and comfort to ensure they receive a good quality night’s sleep. For further comfort, the Travelodge Dreamer is dressed with a quilted mattress topper and bounce back duvet & pillows. A new addition to the bedding is a stylish swoosh stripes runner to help create a gift wrap feel to the bed.
The Travelodge Dreamer also features a unique benefit of housing two space saving comfy truckle beds within its base. When the beds are in use the base can be used for storing luggage, providing extra space in the room. The truckle beds have been designed to replace the traditional sofa bed, and provide an enhanced service for families staying in the room.
The room also features a sleep inducing colour palette in a tranquil blue, as well as stylish swoosh stripes on the curtains.
Other additions in the new Travelodge room include a larger desk, new carpet, artwork above the bed and a stylish white contemporary en-suite bathroom.
The sheer scale of the refurbishment programme means one million man hours will go into the refit, along with 60,000 tins of paint and 30,000 new beds – enough to cover nine football pitches.
By the end of the year, Travelodge plans to have refitted more than 50% of all its rooms, with 5,000 completed by the end of May alone. By autumn 2014, almost 90% of Travelodge’s estate will incorporate the new room design, meaning the makeover will see an average of more than 50 rooms refurbished every single day for the next 18 months.
The refit will also see a redesign of the hotel chain’s restaurants and public areas.