Travelodge, the UK's fastest growing hotel company, today announces the £24m exchange of contracts on two new hotels next to the MEN Arena, Manchester, and the NEC in Birmingham.
Both of the hotels will have 200 beds, with the locations being chosen largely due to the increasing popularity of live music, comedy and the enduring popularity of conferences and exhibitions. They follow recent Travelodge exchanges in close proximity to London Excel, the Liverpool Echo Arena and the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle.
The hotels will create upwards of 100 jobs, with many more set to be created during the construction period.
Travelodge is now looking for further opportunities to site hotels near popular venues. A focus is on seeking locations near, among others, the 02 in Greenwich, Wembley Arena and the SECC in Glasgow.
This explosion in popularity of live events helped existing Travelodge hotels, which are located near to live venues, to outperform hotels of a comparable size over the past two years. London Docklands (0.9 miles from the O2), Cardiff Central (0.3 miles from the Cardiff International Arena) and Glasgow Braehead (0.1 mile from the Breahead Arena) have all seen occupancy hit 100% on nights when a major event is being held.
The phenomenon of Britains arenas shows no sign of stopping. In 2008 live music (£904m) generated more money than recorded music (£898m) for the first time, while comedians now regularly sell out Arenas. Last week Peter Kay performed for five nights at the 23,000 seat O2 in Greenwich while in December John Bishop is performing for six nights at the 11,000 capacity Liverpool Echo Arena.
Paul Harvey, Managing Director for Development at Travelodge, said:
"The explosion in the popularity of live music and comedy events over recent years saw our hotels located near to arenas out perform expectations during the recession.
"The NEC in Birmingham and the MEN in Manchester both attract the biggest acts, conferences and events from around the world so I am delighted we have been able to secure these locations. We have identified another three arenas we are looking to build in close proximity to and I hope we will secure those deals soon."
ENDS
Notes to Editors
About Travelodge The first budget hotel brand to launch in the UK in 1985, Travelodge now operates 452 hotels - (30,504 rooms) ten 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.
Over nine 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 over 6,000 staff.