Travelodge is coming to Rotherham
Travelodge, the UK’s first budget hotel chain, which operates 595 hotels across the UK, Ireland and Spain, announces it is coming to Rotherham and construction has started on the town’s first branded hotel.
Rotherham Travelodge, a 69-room hotel, will be the group’s 36th hotel in Yorkshire and it is the county’s first new-build, budget-luxe Travelodge hotel. It represents a multi-million investment for the landlord, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, and will create around 25 new jobs within the community. The hotel is being developed by nationwide placemaker, Muse, and the contractor is Bowmer and Kirkland. Rotherham Travelodge is scheduled to open in 2024.
Earlier this year, Travelodge announced it is evolving its core brand to a new, budget-luxe, premium look and feel design – whilst maintaining its great value price proposition. This new design has been created on the success of the group’s budget chic hotel format, TravelodgePLUS, with feedback from the company’s largest consumer study – which surveyed around 5,000 UK business and leisure travellers to find the psychographics of the modern budget traveller. Key findings revealed that modern travellers crave style, choice and little homely touches to make it easier to work, rest and relax, both inside and outside of the room.
The new budget-luxe design includes all the low cost efficiencies you would expect from Travelodge, but with the added benefit of thoughtful, stylish design and homely touches throughout its interiors. The Travelodge budget-luxe design also includes a number of sustainable initiatives. This includes the new carpet being made from recycled fishing nets which are part of a project supporting clean ocean initiatives, tackling over 640k tonnes of discarded fishing nets currently impacting marine life. The carpet backing is also made of old plastic bottles. Every ten of these bottles which are recycled rather than being sent to landfill saves enough energy to power a laptop for 25 hours. The other features include low energy lighting, motion sensing controls and aerated showers and taps.
The hotel is part of the wider regeneration project, Forge Island, being developed by Muse and Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. The scheme is 100% pre-let and, once complete, the new destination will provide fantastic facilities for residents and families to enjoy right in the heart of Rotherham town centre, including a new, boutique, 8-screen cinema from The Arc, each with laser digital projection and Dolby digital surround sound for the ultimate film experience. Five food and beverage brands have already signed up to the scheme and will showcase food and drink from across the globe. A sixth will be announced shortly.
Tony O’Brien, Travelodge UK Development Director: “We are delighted to be working with Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council to bring Travelodge, the town’s first branded hotel to Rotherham town centre. This hotel will help to attract new business and leisure customers to the area. It is also a great example of town centre regeneration, bringing an old, derelict, former industrial site back into beneficial, economic use. Schemes like this take years of hard work and it’s great to be working with such a progressive, enthusiastic Council and its excellent development delivery partner, Muse.”
“Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council is doing a great job in investing to regenerate the town centre. Its funding support has enabled the delivery of this development at a time when private sector funding is in very scarce supply. This will be of great benefit to the Rotherham community for many years to come. Forge Island is a great addition to the town centre and will support the existing shops, attractions such as Rotherham United’s AESSEAL New York stadium, so there will be plenty for Travelodge’s business and leisure customers to enjoy when we open in 2024.”
Cllr Chris Read, Leader of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council said: “Forge Island is the single biggest investment in our town centre for decades. It will be the first cinema in the central area for thirty years and the community has waited a very long time to see this work begin. As we face into the difficult economic times ahead, it’s more important than ever to redouble our efforts to build a better future on the other side. So this marks a huge step in the right direction in the delivery of our town centre masterplan, towards the kind of town centre that people can be proud of once again.”
Raife Gale, Senior Development Manager at Muse, said: “Since we were appointed as the council’s partner for Forge Island in 2018, we’ve worked collaboratively with the council to reach this point where we’re on site and we can’t wait to deliver this exciting destination for the community.
“Interest in Forge Island has been incredible and we’ve assembled a fantastic line up of operators and amenities to join us in our mission to create an attractive leisure destination with a social purpose that becomes a catalyst for further investment and regeneration in the town.”
In addition to the opening of the new Rotherham site, Travelodge is actively looking for a further 16 hotel sites in the North East which could represent an investment of £160 million and create 400 new jobs. The full list of Travelodge requirements can be found here.
The YouTube videos accessed from the links below provides a closer look at the new Forge Island project:
https://www.newforgeisland.co.uk/about-1/watch-now