Today, one of Scotland’s largest hotel chains, Travelodge, opens the first branded hotel in Peterhead. This is the first of three hotel openings for the company in Scotland this year. The other two include a 74-room hotel in Stirling and a 54-room Travelodge in Inverness. Both hotels are scheduled to open towards the end of 2017.
These properties represent an investment value of £14m for third party investors and will create around 50 new jobs.
The new Inverness and Stirling Travelodge hotels will feature the next generation of the company’s ‘Travelodgical’ contemporary room design. Together with the bespoke king size Travelodge Dreamer bed, this includes new bedside USB charging points, new softer LED ceiling lighting to give the room a warmer feel and a Samsung 32 inch digital television.
Peterhead Travelodge is the company’s 544th hotel. The purpose built 63 room hotel with on-site car-parking is located in the heart of the town centre on Chapel Street. The hotel was officially opened on 28 March 2017 by The Provost of Aberdeenshire, Councillor Hamish Vernal.
At the opening of Peterhead Travelodge, the hotel chain also announced that Scotland remains a key growth area, fuelled by businesses looking to reduce travel costs and by the new generation of independent leisure travellers. To support this growing demand, Travelodge is looking for 21 new sites across Scotland where it can potentially open a hotel.
This expansion would represent an investment value of £100m for third party investors and could create around 400 new jobs.
From the target list of 21 sites, nine locations could get their first branded hotel. These locations are: Ardrossan, Aviemore, Galashiels, Kirkwall, Lerwick, Loch Lomond, Montrose, Oban and Pitlochry.
Five locations from the target list could get their first Travelodge hotel. These locations are: St Andrews, East Kilbride, Elgin, Greenock and Newton Mearns.
Travelodge is also looking to double its portfolio of hotels in Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow, with a further five hotels.
Brian Wallace, Travelodge Chairman said: “The value hotel market continues to go from strength to strength in Scotland boosted by cost-conscious businesses looking to reduce travel costs and by the growth in independent leisure travel. To meet this growing demand in addition to opening in Peterhead today, Travelodge will be opening new hotels in Inverness and Stirling later this year.
This is just the start, we are on a journey to become Britain’s favourite hotel for value and we have identified 21 locations across Scotland where we can bring good quality accommodation at a great value price.”
The table below details Travelodge’s Scotland development target list, the areas named in blue are locations that don’t currently have a branded hotel.
Location |
1 Ardrossan |
2 Aviemore |
3 East Kilbride |
4 Edinburgh Park |
5 Elgin |
6 Falkirk |
7 Galashiels |
8 Glasgow (City Centre) |
9 Glasgow East M8 |
10 Glasgow SECC |
11 Glasgow Silverburn |
12 Glasgow West End |
13 Greenock |
14 Kirkwall |
15 Lerwick |
16 Loch Lomond (South) |
17 Montrose |
18 Oban |
19 Newton Mearns |
20 Pitlochry |
21 St Andrews |
Travelodge operates 42 hotels (2,968 rooms) across Scotland. It employs over 650 people. Over the last few years, the hotel chain has invested £7m modernising its hotels across Scotland in the company’s new contemporary brand design. This includes upgrading the room offering and introducing a new bespoke luxurious king-size bed called the Travelodge Dreamer. Family rooms now feature two individual beds for children.
The group expects to open 15 new hotels across the UK in 2017, creating 325 new jobs and growing its network of hotels to 559 locations in the UK, Spain and Ireland. This list includes new hotels in Peterhead, Inverness and Stirling.