Travelodge to open 22 new hotels

Budget hotel chain Travelodge today announced plans to open 22 new hotels before Christmas, creating 450 jobs.

The £125m investment is part of the group's drive to increase its estate from 350 hotels to around 1,000 by 2020.

It is kicking off the programme with the opening of hotels in Hereford, Devizes, Stevenage and Barking during October.

Further hotels will be opened in other locations including Wolverhampton, Middlesbrough, Torquay, Edinburgh and Cardiff's Atlantic Wharf during November and December.

The group is looking to recruit 450 new staff immediately, with posts ranging from hotel managers and receptionists, to housekeepers, cleaners and staff to run its bar.

Paul Harvey, managing director for development at Travelodge, said: "The credit crunch is forcing people to review their spending habits and we are seeing more customers shift to budget hotel accommodation.

"These 22 new hotels, in some of the top UK locations, will add 1,949 new rooms to our portfolio - helping us to make hotels available to more people than ever before.

"We continue to actively seek and pursue new development and growth opportunities as we are looking to open a further 4,000 new rooms in 2009."

The group hopes to grow its estate to 70,000 by 2020, and aims to be the biggest operator in London by the 2012 Olympics with more than 7,000 rooms in the capital.

It plans to grow its portfolio through a combination of building new hotels, converting existing mid-market hotels and office blocks, and turning grade II listed buildings into outlets.

It is offering a £25m bounty to members of the public and staff who alert it to potential sites.

Travelodge, which was acquired by Dubai International Capital from Permira in 2006, was the first budget hotel to launch in the UK in 1985 when it opened its first outlet at Burton under Needwood in Staffordshire.

It has since expanded to have 339 hotels in the UK, as well as eight in Ireland and three in Spain.

It currently employs around 5,000 staff, and 6.5 million people spent a night at a Travelodge last year.

The sites where new hotels are being opened are: Hereford, Devizes, Stevenage, Barking, Worthing Seafront Wolverhampton, Middlesbrough, Borenhamwood, Stratford upon Avon, Chelmsford, Torquay, Ashbourne, Stafford Central, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Blackpool Tower, Cardiff Atlantic Wharf, Pontypool, Portmadog, Caernarfon, Heathrow Central, Tower of London and Edinburgh.