Following the successful completion of its financial restructuring and CVA in October 2012, Travelodge, the UK’s leading budget hotel company, has been working with the landlords of 49 hotels to identify new operators.
Further to this process, Travelodge has announced that it has signed a new franchise contract for seven hotels with Moto, the UK’s largest provider of motorway service areas. In addition, Travelodge has also signed franchise contracts with individual operators for 13 other hotels.
Under the terms of the franchise agreements, the hotels will be transferred to new owners but will continue to be operated and managed by Travelodge. The new owners will be responsible for fully refurbishing these properties in line with Travelodge’s new room design and refurbishment programme which was launched earlier this year.
Travelodge also announces today that it has transferred 18 hotels and the majority of staff to new operators, which include: Best Western, Ibis and Metro Inns.
Existing bookings at these hotels have either been transferred to adjacent Travelodge hotels or will be honoured by the new operators.
Four of the properties under new ownership will be re-opened as new businesses (two properties are being converted into student accommodation and the other two properties are being converted into an events & meeting rooms venue and staff accommodation).
Travelodge will continue to work closely with the landlords of the remaining 11 hotels to find suitable new operators and in the meantime these hotels will continue to operate under the Travelodge brand as normal.
Travelodge CEO Grant Hearn commented:
“It is great news that we have been able to find new operators and introduce franchise contracts for the majority of these hotels. We were always confident that we would secure a future for these properties and the deals that have taken place just demonstrate the huge strength of the Travelodge brand and the success of our operations model.
“Going forward, we are very excited to continue to grow our business, strengthen our product offering and make Travelodge the best value hotel chain in the UK.
“Our £57million refurbishment programme is well underway and by the end of this year we will have refurbished more than 50% of our hotel rooms. By autumn 2014, almost 90% of Travelodge’s estate will incorporate the new room design. This equates to an average of more than 50 Travelodge rooms being refurbished every single day for the next 18 months.
“Initial feedback from our customers in regards to the new room design has been fantastic. There is no doubt the hero of our new room is certainly the Travelodge Dreamer bed”.