£300m will be invested in new properties to boost the Travelodge estate to 495 hotels and 35,841 rooms.
Travelodge further announced very aggressive growth targets and plans to have 1,100 hotels and 100,000 rooms by 2025.
Guy Parsons, Travelodge chief executive, said the new-build is part of their strategy to expand during the current difficult economic climate while competitors put their plans on hold.
“Last year we exchanged on 96 sites making it a record year,” Parons said.
“Fifty-two of these exchanges were part of the biggest transaction in the hotel sector since 2008 with the pub chain Mitchells & Butlers. As a result of the recession, we have successfully acquired superior sites due to lower market property prices, which otherwise would not have been available for hotel use.”
Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008, Travelodge has opened and exchanged on 13,900 hotel rooms, equaling 4.3 million square feet, more than any other leisure company in Britain, a Travelodge statement said.
Travelodge said it has heavily focused on city centre growth in the past five years “to rebalance its portfolio away from roadside locations”. Motorway and trunk-route sites are 25 per cent of the company’s hotel stock. Another quarter is in suburban, seaside and tourist locations.
Over half of the Travelodge hotels being built this year are situated in major UK cities, with eight to be built in London. Three hotels are scheduled for Birmingham, one at the NEC and two in the city centre.
Manchester will get two new hotels and city centre hotel openings are planned for Cardiff, Liverpool, Bristol, Lancaster, Canterbury, Cambridge and Hull.
Guy Parsons, Travelodge, Chief Executive, said: “Our aggressive growth plan has continued to drive Travelodge’s presence in city centres where over half of our hotels are now located.
“With our new 2011 London openings we will become the largest hotel brand in the capital this spring while our Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham hotels will be some of the biggest within our estate”.
Five hotels will open in coastal locations in Morecombe, Paignton, Ramsgate, Portishead and New Brighton. Travelodge is also opening a hotel in Spain’s third largest city Valencia, at the airport.
Last July, Travelodge announced is was to invest up to £10m to refurbish nearly 2,000 rooms it acquired from restaurant and pub operator Mitchells & Butlers earlier in the year.
Travelodge acquired the leases of 52 Innkeeper’s Lodges – 1,994 rooms in a 25-year lease deal. It boosted Travelodge’s estate to 452 hotels and increased its room stock to 30,504 across the UK, Ireland and Spain.
The 52 UK hotels, including a number of grade ll listed buildings, range from 21 to 85 rooms and are adjacent to a Mitchells & Butlers restaurant and pub.
As part of the investment, Willmott Dixon Interiors just announced that it had finished a £4.1m conversion contract on the acquired Innkeeper’s Lodge hotels.
Willmott Dixon, Travelodge’s “supplier-of-the-year”, said the fast-track four-month work included bringing reception areas and bedrooms into line with Travelodge’s branding as part of a general interior redecoration.
Willmott Dixon’s three-year relationship with Travelodge has seen it carry out refurbishment and maintenance as well as entire hotel upgrades to refresh and maintain optimum standards in bedrooms, main reception and customer areas, restaurants and cafes.
Tim Wheeldon, Willmott Dixon’s hotel sector manager, said the target is for a turnover of £75m within three years in the hotel sector.
