October 2023 - Travelodge Property Development

Travelodge officially opens its sixth Spanish hotel in Madrid

Travelodge, a leading budget hotel chain which operates nearly 600 hotels across the UK, Ireland and Spain, has officially opened its sixth hotel in Spain – in Coslada, Madrid. To mark this special occasion, the group hosted a ceremonial event which was attended by the landlord, investors, property agents and key British and Spanish stakeholders.

At the event the Mayor of Coslada, Ángel Viveros Gutiérrez; joined Jo Boydell, Chief Executive; and Angel Beleño, General Director of Spain, to officially open the hotel.

Travelodge signed a 20 year lease of the former NH Villa De Coslada, Madrid and has since refurbished and rebranded the 78-room hotel to become the Travelodge Madrid Coslada Aeropuerto, which features an on-site restaurant, bar and car-park.

Travelodge has invested €1 million in updating the hotel to Travelodge’s latest premium look and feel. The hotel is situated close to the Civitas Metropolitano Stadium, IFEMA Convention Center and Madrid airport – making it an ideal base for both business and leisure customers.

Madrid Coslada Aeropuerto Travelodge is the group’s third hotel in Madrid and its sixth in Spain. It also operates two hotels in Barcelona and one in Valencia. Travelodge has worked closely with a consultancy team at Christie & Co, the leading European real estate advisory firm, who have prepared a strategic expansion report on the development opportunities offered by the Spanish hotel market.

Findings from this report confirm that despite Spain being a top global leisure and business destination, it remains an under-represented market for budget accommodation, with Economy and Midscale hotel rooms representing 33% of total room supply in comparison to mature markets including France (c.59%), the UK (c41%) and the USA (c44%). Meanwhile, just 6% of Spain’s hotel rooms are in the branded Economy and Midscale segment.

The study identified the potential for an additional 15,000 branded rooms in the Economy and Midscale segment of the Spanish hotel market within the next five years, through a combination of new developments and conversions of existing hotels.

This potential growth in the Spanish midscale and economy hotel market provides a huge opportunity for investors, who are looking for solid long-term income streams – and aligns well with Travelodge’s expansion plans.

Travelodge has nearly four decades of expertise in operating budget hotels, a strong brand, and a proven successful long term lease model in place. Working with its appointed property agents, Aldaba Partners, who provide a comprehensive investment advisory service, Travelodge is planning to grow its
Spanish business, offering solid long-term income stream opportunities for investors.

Travelodge has initially identified the top 20 key markets where it would like to open a hotel in Spain.
These markets are predicted to continue to grow their business and leisure visitor numbers over the coming years, but currently have a shortage of good quality, low cost, branded accommodation to meet the needs of business and leisure guests.

Travelodge’s plans include expanding its existing hotel network in the locations where it currently operates including Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia, as well as in other major business and tourist locations. Key target locations are listed below:

Primary Current Locations: Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia
Primary New Locations: Alicante, Bilbao, Cádiz, Malaga, Palma Mallorca, San Sebastián and Seville
Secondary Locations: Benidorm, Córdoba, Gerona, Granada, Las Palmas De Gran Canaria, Santiago de Compostela, Santander, Tarragona, Valladolid and Zaragoza

Travelodge’s Spanish operation is managed by Angel Beleno, who joined Travelodge in 2013 as Spain, Director of Operations and in 2014 was promoted to Spain, General Director. Angel has over 20 years of experience working within the hospitality sector in Spain and internationally. Prior to joining Travelodge, Angel worked for Melia Hotels International and Barceló Hotels and amp Resorts
in Spain and Mexico.

Angel Beleño, Travelodge, General Director, Spain said: “Spain is the fourth most visited country in the world and its tourism industry is now an important engine of the Spanish economy. This is creating new opportunities in the Spanish hotel market, especially for the Midscale and Economy hotel sector, and we want to take this opportunity to bring the Travelodge brand to new business and leisure locations across Spain.

“With nearly four decades of expertise in operating budget hotels, a strong brand and a proven successful long term lease model in place, we can help to grow the Spanish Midscale and Economy hotel sector. Our latest acquisition is a prime example of how we can convert an existing hotel into a successful Travelodge, offering investors and landlords an alternative long-term income stream in Spain and providing both business and leisure travellers with more choice and great value accommodation.”

The Spanish expansion plans come just weeks after Travelodge announced record-breaking results for the six months to 30 June 2023, reporting a revenue and profit performance significantly ahead of 2022 levels earnings (adjusted EBITDA) to £104.5 million for the half year, reflecting the continued resilience of the UK budget hotel segment and the wide appeal of Travelodge’s quality and value offering across its 598 hotels and over 46,000 rooms.

Construction starts on a new 113-room Chiswick (West London) Travelodge hotel

Travelodge, the UK’s largest independent hotel chain is delighted to announce that construction has commenced for its London Chiswick Travelodge. The 113-room hotel will feature the group’s on-site restaurant and is located next to the Chiswick Roundabout, one of London’s best known road junctions.

London Chiswick Travelodge is the Company’s fourth hotel currently under construction in London. The other three sites include the group’s 600th Travelodge, a 95-room hotel at the Kia Oval Cricket Ground (in partnership with Surrey County Cricket Club). A 73-room hotel in Bermondsey and a 72-room hotel in Beckenham are also being constructed.

With the opening of these four hotels, Travelodge will operate 84 hotels in London, making it one of the Capital’s biggest hotel chains.

Travelodge secured forward funding in November 2022 for the development of London Chiswick Travelodge. The funding partner, RTP Global Real Estate Investments, purchased the site and committed to fund the development for £19.4m and retain Travelodge as the development manager for the scheme.

Barnes Construction, which has a long-standing partnership with Travelodge and recently constructed Travelodge’s London Wimbledon Central hotel in 2022, has been appointed as contractor for the new, six storey Chiswick development.

The hotel is expected to be completed in Q1 2025 and will be let to Travelodge on a new 35-year lease, with five -yearly, index-linked rent reviews with caps and collars.

London Chiswick Travelodge is being developed to the group’s new, premium look and feel design specification and will be built to BREEAM “Excellent” standards and with an EPC rating of “A”.

The new Travelodge hotel design has been created in response to the 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 from the study 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. It also includes a number of sustainable initiatives such as 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.

London is a key growth area for Travelodge’s development strategy. A dedicated team is in place to secure a further 100 sites across the Capital for a new Travelodge opening. This expansion programme would more than double Travelodge’s presence in London and could represent a multi-billion investment for third party investors and create thousands of new jobs.

Steve Bennett, Travelodge, Chief Property & Development Officer, said: “We are delighted to be expanding our London hotel network with the construction of our first hotel in Chiswick. The new Travelodge will be in a fantastic location on Chiswick High Road, 400m from Gunnersbury underground and railway line, 450m from Chiswick Business Park and within easy walking distance of the Gtech Community Stadium, home of Brentford FC; so a great place for business and leisure customers to stay, either visiting the local area, or Central London.

With over 80 Travelodges in London, we now operate in 31 out the 33 London boroughs and are one of London’s biggest hotel chains. We are currently building four more new London hotels, including our 600th Travelodge at the Kia Oval Cricket Ground, but we still have room for further growth in London.

Nowadays, more Britons are choosing to stay in a budget hotel than any other hotel type, but London cannot fulfil this growing trend as it has a shortage of good quality and low cost accommodation. Therefore, to help fill this growing gap, we are actively searching for over 100 new hotel sites across the Capital. This London expansion programme could collectively represent a multi-billion pound investment for third party investors and create thousands of new jobs.”

Svetlana Lomovtseva at RTP RE, said: “Following on from our successful acquisition of this high profile site late last year we are delighted that we have now moved on to the construction phase of the project. We are looking forward to working with Travelodge and Barnes and the smooth delivery of this much needed new hotel in Q1, 2025.”

Andy Cole at Vokins, Travelodge’s retained agent for West London, represented Travelodge for the Chiswick development deal and is currently searching for a further 15 development locations across West London.

Andy Cole, at Vokins, said: “I am delighted that I could support Travelodge in securing the Chiswick hotel site. This deal is a testament of the Travelodge brand; despite the challenging marketing conditions that we are operating within, Travelodge continues to expand its hotel network. Our focus continues to grow Traveloge’s footprint across West London and we are actively looking for a further 15 hotel sites in locations such as Hammersmith, White City, Southall, Staines and Uxbridge.”

London Kings Cross Royal Scot Travelodge is upgraded to the group’s new premium budget-luxe design

Travelodge, the pioneers of the UK budget hotel sector, are delighted to announce that London Kings Cross Royal Scot Travelodge has been selected as one of the company’s 55 hotels to be upgraded in 2023 to the group’s new premium look and feel Budget-Luxe design.

The new Travelodge Budget-Luxe 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.

In response to this consumer insight, the Travelodge interiors team have remodelled their core product with a new budget-luxe design that 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.

This is underpinned by the introduction of a new signature rich navy blue brand colour which pays homage to the first iconic Travelodge blue brand colour- chosen for its calming and uplifting qualities. In essence all the key essentials that matter to modern business and leisure travellers.

During the last few months, the Travelodge Budget-Luxe Hotel Upgrade Team has been working around the clock to refit London Kings Cross Royal Scot Travelodge to the new budget-luxe design. This collective multi-million budget-luxe hotel upgrade programme had 55 Travelodge hotels selected to be upgraded in 2023 alone, with over half (32) completed this year. As well as London Kings Cross Royal Scot, this includes another of the largest hotels on the Travelodge estate – 463-room London Central Covent Garden Travelodge.

London Kings Cross Royal Scot Travelodge, a 408-room hotel, is one of twenty eight London hotels to feature the group’s new Budget-Luxe design.

The London Kings Cross Royal Scot Travelodge budget-luxe upgrade programme includes a timeless classic, elegant style reception which is the hub of the hotel. A next generation room which has been smartly devised to create a multi-dimensional space by utilising the new luxurious signature Travelodge navy blue colour for the R&R (resting and relaxing) section of the room and a serene colour palette for the functional and energising side of the room to work and get ready.

The upgrade also features a number of sustainable initiatives, including carpet made from recycled fishing nets and plastic bottles, low energy lighting installed throughout the hotel with motion sensing controls and aerated showers and taps in the en-suite bathrooms.

Refurbishment completed on 29/06/2023.

Travelodge also worked with the famous Psychologist, Corrine Sweet on its new budget-luxe hotel design and Psychologist Corinne Sweet said: Recent psychological research shows people’s tastes are changing and incorporating homely touches into décor and design are becoming essential to create a calming environment for wellbeing. The new Travelodge budget-luxe design fits the bill as the premium look and feel is a good mixture of high functionality, comfort and calmness which helps guests feel psychologically refreshed.”

The new Travelodge budget-luxe design features

A new hub of the hotel – a redesigned elegant reception

The new reception area has been designed in a warm timeless classic style featuring a decorative panel design, soft low LED lighting, stylish leather bench seating and wooden style flooring. The new colour palette includes the new warm Travelodge signature navy blue shade complemented against a palette of fresh tranquil neutral shades – creating a big warm welcome from Travelodge.

The next generation multi-dimensional Travelodge room

The new chic Travelodge room offers everything a business or leisure guest needs for a comfortable, relaxing stay and most importantly a good night’s sleep. The room has been smartly decorated to create a multi-dimensional space by utilising the new luxurious signature Travelodge navy blue colour for the R&R (Resting and Relaxing) section of the room and a serene colour palette for the functional and energising side of the room where you need to work and get ready.

The bespoke luxurious king-size Travelodge Dreamer bed remains the king of the room and is dressed with crisp white bed linen which includes a cosy 10.5 tog duvet and comfy pillows. The bed sits within a light box bed frame that emanates a soft, warm glow to aid relaxation and features bedside reading lights and USB charging points. Located above the bed is a bespoke piece of artwork commissioned by Travelodge which has been inspired by classic lullabies, with clever use of playful and discoverable elements to help you drift off to sleep.

The en-suite bathroom also features a new brilliant white complementary design and décor with complimentary hand, hair and body wash.

Other key features of the new room include:

A spacious desk and a stylish desk chair
A cosy statement armchair where you can kick back and curl up to read your book or watch TV
Blackout curtains to create a dark space for a good night’s sleep
Complimentary tea & coffee making facilities
A TV with Freeview
LED lighting in the room and bathroom

● Complimentary WIFI for 30 mins £3 for 24 hours

A stylish on-site restaurant with a statement bar called the ‘Bar Café’

The stylish Bar Café features a well-designed space for guests to work, relax and socialise. The restaurant features a contemporary design, with key statement features and a warm relaxing ambiance. The restaurant offers distinctive zones designed to suit the needs of business and leisure travellers. These include counter seating with built-in USB and laptop power for those working outside the room.

Travelodge is the UK’s first hotel brand to sublet to Popeyes at its Northampton Travelodge hotel site

Travelodge, the UK’s first budget hotel chain, which operates nearly 600 hotels across the UK, Ireland, and Spain, is delighted to announce it has entered a sublet agreement with Popeyes Louisiana Chicken. The global brand, which is renowned for its ‘Shatter Crunch’ chicken, is taking the UK by storm and has opened one of its first UK drive-thru restaurants at the Northampton Upton Way Travelodge hotel site.

In a unique sublet deal, Popeyes UK is the latest retail brand to join the Travelodge mixed-scheme development partnership portfolio.

Over the last three decades, Travelodge, the pioneering hotel chain has been the first hotel brand to partner-up with a number of household brands in a variety of mixed use developments alongside other complementary uses – such as retail, food & beverage, coffee shops and drive-thrus. This includes Travelodge hotels operating alongside a popular retail brand such as Starbucks, Subway, McDonalds and now Popeyes Louisiana Chicken.

Travelodge was also the first hotel brand to partner with some of Britain’s biggest supermarkets and retailers such as: Tesco, Sainsbury’s, M&S, Aldi, Lidl, Home Bargains and Waitrose – making it easier for customers to pick up essentials during their stay.

Today, over a third of Travelodge hotels are located within a mixed development scheme with household brands. Detailed are some of the brands that Travelodge has worked with in development partnership programmes.

Aldi
Green Hill Pubs
Marks & Spencer
Starbucks
Burger King
Home Bargains
Marstons
Subway
Costa Coffee
KFC
McDonalds
Tesco
Greggs
Lidl
Sainsburys
Waitrose

Travelodge is keen to expand its development brand partnerships as part of its UK expansion programme which includes looking for a further 300 hotel sites across the country. Mixed-use development is gaining popularity not just in the UK but across the globe as it is becoming a more prominent feature of planning policy, with the aim of revitalising urban centres and generating benefits for all stakeholders and the community. It also reduces the neighbourhood carbon footprint and minimises air pollution.

In addition it spurs revitalisation, supports regeneration and enhances an area’s unique identity and development potential by promoting a sense of place and community.

Also certain brands such as Travelodge can influence other brands to invest into the programme and enhance the customer experience. For example our London Manor House Travelodge is a part of a mixed-use, new development, including a Co-Op convenience store, a coffee shop and a hostel.

From the 300 hotel locations where Travelodge is actively looking to open a hotel – 120 of these locations currently do not have a Travelodge hotel and fifty of these sites do not currently have a branded budget hotel. Therefore opening a Travelodge in these locations would greatly impact on the town’s economy and attract more business and leisure visitors to the area. Collectively this expansion programme could create around 9,000 new jobs across the UK.

The Popeyes drive-thru restaurant is located at the site of the first Travelodge hotel in Northampton at Walter Tull Way, Upton, Northampton.

Today, Travelodge operates ten hotels across Northamptonshire and the group has also recently acquired the lease of the Ibis hotel in Wellingborough and is actively looking for a further hotel in Corby.

Steve Bennett, Travelodge, Chief Property & Development Officer, said: “We are constantly looking at new and innovative ways to develop our estate and enhance the customer journey. We have experience of working with major retailers and hospitality companies to help maximise development opportunities to support local growth, job creation and regeneration. As pioneers of the budget hotel sector, we are delighted to enter a sublet agreement with Popeyes and to offer the first hotel drive-thru restaurant at our Northampton Upton Way Travelodge site.”

“As we look to the future, we have identified that we can grow our business with a further 300 hotels across the UK and we welcome the opportunity to continue to work with Popeyes as well as other major retailers and hospitality companies on mixed-development schemes. This investment from third party investors will help to create around 9,000 new jobs, support local economies and importantly give our guests a great base location for their business and leisure trips.”

Travelodge currently has opportunities for retail sublets across the UK – for further information please visit: www.travelodgeproperty.co.uk

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