Travelodge boosts expansion targets

Travelodge widened its growth plans on Monday, extending its long-term expansion target by five years and adding 30,000 rooms to its expected portfolio of budget hotel rooms.

The hotel group, which has a handful of properties in Ireland and Spain but is otherwise focused on the UK, had previously aimed to have 70,000 rooms and 1,000 hotels by 2020 but now expects to achieve 100,000 rooms and 1,100 hotels by 2025.

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Hotel Boss Defends Hiring Convicted Killers

The head of Travelodge has told Sky News he has no concerns at all about employing three convicted female killers in a single York hotel.

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Hotel firm Travelodge joins bids for Kent UK site as regeneration gathers pace

AFTER years of indecision, three huge steps have been taken towards making the regeneration of Sittingbourne town centre and the Bell Centre a reality.

National chain Travelodge wants to build a 56-room hotel as part of ambitious proposals to transform the dilapidated Bell Centre. And, yesterday (Tuesday), officials at supermarket giant Morrisons announced a firm commitment to open a store on the old paper mill site and bring hundreds of jobs to the area.
This followed confirmation last week that Tesco has submitted three massive planning applications.
Bell Sittingbourne LLP, owner of the rundown Bell shopping centre and surrounding buildings, has teamed up with Travelodge and submitted four planning applications.

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Travelodge Signs GBP24 Million Deal

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- U.K. hotel chain Travelodge said Sunday that it signed exchange of contracts worth GBP24 million for two new hotels next to the MEN arena in Manchester and the NEC in Birmingham, and the company plans further expansion near major venues and stadiums.
The announcement Sunday follows recent deals near London Excel, the Liverpool Echo Arena and the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle.

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Budget chain marks 25 yrs of true value

Cheap sleeps in Britain are 25 years old and will be celebrated on Monday with the unveiling of a plaque.
Travelodge launched the first budget hotel in the UK in 1985 on the A38 at Bartonunder-Needwood, Staffs. The company - now owned by private equity firm Dubai International Capital - has 438 hotels in the UK, with 11 in Ireland and three in Spain. It employs about 6,000 staff.

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Hotel made of shipping containers in London

LONDON: An eight-storey hotel is being built from 86 modified shipping container-like structures, stacked on top of each other and bolted together.


When complete in June, rooms at the new Travelodge in Uxbridge, west London, will cost £19 a night.

The chain said it may build up to half of its future hotels in this way.

The purpose-built containers are shipped from China with the bathrooms, plasterboard walls and electrical points already fitted.
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Travelodge rules out sale to Whitbread

Budget hotel group Travelodge is not up for sale and its debt-laden owner Dubai International Capital (DIC) has had no approach from Whitbread (WTB.L), CEO Guy Parsons told Reuters, scotching media speculation.

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Mitchells & Butlers In Hotel Sale Deal With Travelodge

LONDON (Dow Jones)--U.K. pub group Mitchells & Butlers PLC (MAB.LN) Thursday took the first major step in its new management's business strategy, selling its 52 hotels for GBP91 million, with budget hotel operator Travelodge taking on the leases in a 25-year deal.

The U.K. pub group said it was selling the Inkeeper's Lodges, which comprise 2,000 rooms, to Prupim, a property investment arm of Prudential PLC (PUK).

Prupim in turn has agreed to lease the hotels for 25 years to Travelodge, the budget hotel chain owned by Dubai Holding's investment arm.

The deal is the first under M&B's new strategy of selling non-core assets to focus on expanding its key brands.

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UK Travelodge CEO Sees No Impact From Parent's Woes

LONDON (Dow Jones)--Budget hotel operator Travelodge remains committed to its rapid U.K. expansion rather than further ventures overseas, and will not be affected by the troubles faced by its owners in Dubai, its new chief executive Guy Parsons told Dow Jones Newswires.

"The focus now really is on the U.K.," said Parsons in an interview in London. "For the next two-to-three years you're not going to see a change in strategy because the opportunity's so much greater here than other locations."

Travelodge operates almost 400 hotels in the U.K. and also operates a handful of hotels in Spain and the Republic of Ireland.

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Shh! Hotel sleep wardens listen for night noise

As a New Yorker, Patricia Luebke is used to sleeping through a lot of ambient noise. But there was no chance she was going to get any shut-eye with a party going on in the hallway outside her Cincinnati hotel room door.

She tried complaining to the hotel management. “But they did nothing,” Luebke said. “By the time party finally broke up, at around 4 a.m., I was screaming at the front desk. In retrospect, I should have called the police.”

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Proposed levy on hotel development will harm London tourism

The future growth of the tourism industry in London could be at risk from a proposed levy on all new hotel developments.

InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG), Wyndham and Travelodge are amongst a number of leading hotel companies which have signed a letter to London Mayor Boris Johnson urging him to abandon his plans to put what is effectively a tax on all future hotel developments of £60 per sq m in Central London and £82 per sq m in the Isle of Dogs.

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Travelodge Names Guy Parsons As New CEO, Hearn Chairman

LONDON (Dow Jones)--U.K. budget hotel chain Travelodge Monday named Guy Parsons as its new chief executive officer, replacing Grant Hearn, who steps up to the role of executive chairman.

Parsons will run Travelodge on a day-to-day basis while Hearn will focus on the company's growth opportunities, it said. Travelodge is planning to add 40,000 rooms to its portfolio over the next two decades.

Travelodge operates 28,000 rooms in 390 hotels. It is mainly based in the U.K. but also operates ten hotels in Ireland and three in Spain.

Parsons has served as Travelodge's U.K. managing director since joining from restaurant chain TGI Friday's in 2004. He previously worked at hotel groups Whitbread PLC (WTB.LN) and Accor S.A. (AC.FR).

Hearn has been chief executive since 2003. He replaces Keith Hamill, who moves from non-executive chairman to deputy chairman.

The changes will take effect July 1.

Travelodge also named Jon Hendry-Pickup as its operations director. He joins from Tesco PLC (TSCO.LN), where he was operations director for Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Travelodge is owned by private equity group Dubai International Capital.

Travelodge to spend £61m on 10 new hotels in UK

Travelodge has announced the development of 10 new hotels, at an investment value of £61m.

The hotels will provide an additional 1,133 rooms and will create 300 jobs, with all entry level staff being recruited from the long term unemployed.

There will be three new hotels in London, two in Manchester and further openings in Bristol, Liverpool, Camberley, Cannock and Andover.

The new London hotels underlines Travelodge’s commitment to being the biggest hotel brand in the capital by London 2012.

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Travelodge unveils plan for 26 new hotels

Travelodge, the budget hotel chain, pledged yesterday to create more than 500 jobs in Britain this year with the opening of 26 new hotels.

The group, owned by Dubai International Capital, said that the opening programme, to cost £115 million, would add more than 2,000 rooms to its estate.

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Travelodge vs. Premier Inn's

In connection with our article "Travelodge finds room for complaint in Premier Inn’s adverts for bargain rates" , we received the following Email


Hi Eric

Hope this finds you well. Following your article ‘Travelodge finds room for complaint in Premier Inn’s adverts for bargain rates’, please see statement from a spokesperson from Premier Inn below:

“The UK's biggest hotel chain Premier Inn is confident that it is geared up to offer guests outstanding value. The Premier Inn website homepage has a distinctive banner which clearly indicates where customers should book value offers and Premier Inn's busy call centre has taken hundreds of thousands of bookings for the £29 Premier Offer.”

Please let me know if you require more info.

Best
Gee


Gee Wong
FRANK PR
3rd Floor, Centro 4, 20-23 Mandela Street, London, NW1 0DU
Direct: 020 7693 6971
Office: 020 7693 6999

Travelodge finds room for complaint in Premier Inn’s adverts for bargain rates

They are the titans of the British hotel industry, locked in a bitter price war amid the toughest economic conditions in living memory. In one corner sits Premier Inn, owned by Whitbread, with 582 budget hotels and more than 40,000 rooms across Britain. In the other corner is Travelodge, its private equity-controlled rival, with 377 UK hotels with 27,500 rooms.

And, after years of harmless pillow fighting, the gloves have come off in the battle for the budget traveller’s pound. Travelodge has lodged a formal complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over the £29-a-room Christmas promotional campaign fronted by the actor and comedian Lenny Henry

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Whitbread's budget may stretch to Premier Inn and Travelodge merger

Whitbread, the leisure group, is in talks to create the dominant force in the British budget hotel market by merging its Premier Inn chain with the rival hotel company Travelodge.

It is understood that talks between the two are at an early stage, although both sides are believed to agree on the merits of a deal. “The commercial logic is compelling,” a source said.

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Travelodge hotel chain posts pretax profit of €1.2m

THE TRAVELODGE hotel chain have posted pretax profits of more than €1.2 million for 2008 in abridged accounts filed with the Companies Registration Office.

Smorgs (Ireland) Limited, the company which trades as the Travelodge chain in Ireland, posted pretax profits for the 12-month period ending December 31st, 2008, of €1.26 million, down over €500,000 on the previous year.

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TRAVELODGE TO BUY 14 HOTELS

The budget hotel company is working with financial services group Meghraj, whose high net worth customers are being asked to create a £100 million acquisition fund, known as Tamesis Capital. Meghraj's clients have already put £20 million into the kitty, and are being asked to double that figure.
Tamesis will borrow a further £60 million, while Travelodge will invest just £500,000.

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Permira checks out of Travelodge with £1bn sale

Permira, the private equity group, is putting the budget hotel group Travelodge up for sale with a price tag of around £1bn as it looks for a timely exit from its three-year investment.
Last week Permira held a beauty parade of potential advisers to arrange a sale or flotation of the business. A sale is thought to be the most likely scenario, easily the "cleanest exit" for a private-equity business, and also because the budget hotel chain is expected to attract a lot of bid interest. A float, which carries more risk, is seen as the least likely option. A management buyout is seen as a possibility.

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