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Accor eye Travelodge UK rebrand move on rent strategy backfire

By James Russell: Accor eye Travelodge UK rebrand move on rent strategy backfire

July 26, 2020

 

Accor eye a rebrand move on Travelodge UK

The Travelodge Owners Action Group, representing the majority of UK Travelodge landlords has set up AGO Hotels, exercising their break option from Travelodge following last month’s CVA deal. The move to create AGO Hotels is in association with Accor.

Accor made this move, recognising an opportunity to more than double its British and Irish portfolio by rebranding the majority of Travelodge hotels in the UK.

Travelodge earlier this year adopted an aggressive strategy to force landlords into agreeing no rent for the second three months of 2020. A bitter row followed, and Travelodge placed itself into insolvency proceedings using a company voluntary arrangement.

Landlords accused Travelodge of using the Covid-19 crisis as a thinly veiled excuse to realise cost reductions. US hedge funds that are major investors in Travelodge UK were cited as developers of a strategy designed to take advantage of the crisis, hoping wider events would mask it.

The AGO Hotels structure has been tailored to the requirements of the Action Group landlords, who together represent over two thirds of Travelodge’s entire UK portfolio.

The AGO Hotels proposition includes:

  • A brand partnership with the ibis family of hotels – the European market leader in the economy hotels sector
  • Genuine equity shares, so portfolio profits are redistributed back to landlords
  • No re-valuing of property rents, so there is no possibility of reduced payments to landlords. Instead, base rents will be derived directly from Travelodge pre-CVA rents
  • 25-year FRI lease terms from AGO Hotels

Landlords have now had an opportunity to discuss the details of the AGO Hotels offer on a series of calls with Viv Watts who co-ordinates the Action Group network and experienced hotelier Lionel Benjamin.

Following the very positive response to the platform, chairman and chief executive officer of AccorHotels Sébastien Bazin will be hosting an introductory call with the Action Group next week.

It will be interesting to see how this ongoing ‘hotel saga’ develops and what the eventual outcome will look like.

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Accor takeover Travelodge UK – 26 July 2020 – Accor takeover Travelodge UK

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