Travelodge begins aggressive expansion with pub and supermarket deals

The budget hotel chain has exchanged contracts worth a total of £10.4m on four pubs and has invested £27m in joint ventures with three Waitrose supermarkets.

The pubs

"The pub companies have noticeably stepped up their development plans over recent months and in many parts of the country their target locations correspond with ours," said Paul Harvey, managing director for development at Travelodge.

"A combined hotel/pub development is attractive to banks and funders, making the development process a lot quicker than it otherwise may be."

Pub companies Greene King, JD Wetherspoon and Mitchells & Butlers have joined forces with Travelodge, with new sites including: -

• 60-bed hotel in Darlington, set to open with Mitchell & Butlers’ Harvester in Spring 2012
• 68-bed hotel in King’s Lynn, with Greene King opening the nearby Hungry Horse pub
• 71-bed hotel in Stevenage, to open alongside a Mitchell and Butlers Miller and Carter pub
• 60-bed hotel in Fort William, with JD Wetherspoon opening a 6,000sq.ft outlet underneath

Earlier this year, BigHospitality reported that Travelodge is to embark on a £100m expansion programme with UK pub companies by 2015 .

The supermarkets

Guy Parsons , Travelodge chief executive, said: “We have an aggressive growth strategy in place and our aim is to have 1,100 hotels by 2025. To fuel our development programme we have capitalised on the UK’s supermarkets expansion plans; by co-developing a hotel on top of a Metro style store. We are currently developing or in talks with virtually every supermarket brand in Britain.

The three latest joint ventures, which will create 85 Travelodge jobs. are located at:

• Aylesbury: Travelodge will operate an 81-room hotel and Waitrose will be opening a 37,000 sq.ft supermarket scheduled to open at the end of 2012.
• Sidcup: Waitrose will be operating a 10,000 sq.ft store, while Travelodge will be opening an 84-room hotel scheduled to open in August 2012.
• Vauxhall: Travelodge will be opening a 154-room hotel and Waitrose will be opening a 6,000 sq.ft supermarket in November 2012.

Travelodge is also developing and is in close negotiations on a further 25 deals with supermarket companies across the UK. In May of this year, BigHospitality reported that Travelodge is expanding its Metro brand with the conversion of pubs, office buildings and even snooker halls into small 20-40 bedroom hotels .