Travelodge has announced today that it is seeking to increase its presence in Hampshire by boosting its portfolio with a further ten new hotels across the county.
Travelodge already has 15 hotels in the county and this investment would create 150 new jobs within the region, boosting the local economy annually by £11million.
Travelodge is looking for new sites in the following locations:
- Andover
- Basingstoke
- Christchurch
- Fareham/Portchester
- Fleet
- Lymington
- Petersfield
- Portsmouth
- Waterlooville
- Winchester
Tony O’Brien, Travelodge, UK Development Director said: “Hampshire is one of our top performing counties within the UK, with demand growing at great pace for good quality branded budget hotel rooms from business and leisure travellers.
“In response to this growing need, we have extended our target list for the region and we are going to start looking for new sites in ten locations across the county.
"These locations stretch from Basingstoke to Portsmouth, encompassing most of the county.
“We are excited about the growth opportunities in Hampshire and hope to be able to announce more details soon about specific sites.”
Travelodge currently has 15 hotels in the Hampshire area and employs over 200 staff members. The hotels are located in the following locations: Aldershot, Alton Fourmarks, Barton Stacey, Basingstoke, Chichester Emsworth, Eastleigh Central, Farnborough Central, Fleet, Havant Rowlands Castle, Portsmouth, Portsmouth Hilsea, Southampton, Southampton Easleigh, Stoney Cross Lyndhurst and Winchester Sutton Scotney A34.
The teams at Portsmouth and Alton Fourmarks are celebrating being amongst the first of 500 hotels from the Travelodge estate to benefit from a major refurbishment, which includes a new room design and a luxury bed called the Travelodge Dreamer - which is deemed in the industry as the Rolls Royce of beds. This means over 150 rooms have been refitted in Hampshire already, at a cost of £650,000.
The 108-room Portsmouth hotel which was opened in 1999 on Kingston Crescent was refurbished in just one month without any disturbance to the day-to-day operation of the hotel. The extensive work was carried out by the local ‘MIB’ (Men in Black) team, Travelodge’s in-house maintenance team and cost £400,000. The 50-room Alton Fourmarks hotel which was opened in 1987 on Winchester Road in Alton, was refurbished in two weeks and cost a quarter of a million pounds.
The work is part of a company wide brand investment of £223 million* this year to help further grow the business, strengthen the brand offering and make Travelodge the best value hotel chain in the UK. Hotels in Bournemouth, Southampton and on the Isle of Wight are due to be refitted later this year and by the end of 2013, Travelodge plans to have refitted more than 50% of all its rooms. 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.