Travelodge unveils £300m development schedule

Travelodge has today unveiled its current hotel development schedule that is set to represent a £300m investment, which includes plans to open six UK hotels in 2022 as well as a 397-room franchise flagship hotel in Dublin. The budget hotel chain has also welcomed the start of its 2023 new hotel openings programme, with construction beginning on four new hotels and contracts exchanged for six further future new UK Travelodge hotels in the last 12 months. Collectively, it said this proposed UK expansion would represent an investment of approximately £330m by third party investors and would create around 400 new jobs. Overall, six UK Travelodge hotels are expected to open in 2022. Four of these properties are located in London: Docklands, Lewisham, Peckham and Wimbledon, while the group will also open its first hotels in Braintree (Essex) and Hexham (North East). These hotel openings will collectively boost Travelodge’s portfolio to almost 600 hotels across the UK, Ireland and Spain. The four new hotel openings in London will also increase Travelodge’s presence to over 80 hotels across the Capital, covering 31 out of the 33 boroughs. Travelodge is also developing its in-hotel restaurant business with a new upgraded Bar Café concept. Six of the Travelodge hotels opening in 2022, including the Dublin franchise flagship, feature the group’s on-site restaurant. In addition to this year’s openings, Travelodge’s current development schedule also includes four hotels that have started construction and are expected to open in 2023. Three of these properties also feature the new upgraded Bar Café concept, which will boost the group’s in-hotel restaurant portfolio to 219 sites. Two of these hotels are located in London, at Beckenham and Bermondsey, and the other two properties are in Colchester and Ipswich. Steve Bennett, Travelodge chief property and development officer, said: “2022 marks an important milestone in the evolution of Travelodge, as we launch our new premium look and feel budget-luxe Travelodge design hotels and expand our estate with new hotels and in-house restaurants . “We are seeking to continue this expansion with plans for more than 75 new Travelodge hotels throughout the UK over the next five years, which will create around 2,000 new jobs.” He added: "As we look to the future, the long-term prospects for low-cost hotels remain strong. Britain has become a nation of value conscious travellers, with more of us choosing to stay in budget hotels than any other hotel type, supporting our plans to expand our hotel network. “It is also an interesting time for the property sector; as the Covid pandemic has accelerated major change and opened opportunities for us to take Travelodge to new locations. We are very excited by the next phase of our expansion plan, which will see us deliver more choices in more places than ever before.”