Jetsettersblog

Travelodge, the U.K. hotel company, announced a new U.K. growth drive, pledging to triple the size of its holdings by the end of 2020.

The budget hotel chain will be stepping up its hotel openings in 2008, adding on average 4,000 rooms (approx 40 hotels) every year up to 70,000 rooms (around 1,000) hotels by the end of the next decade - targeting a 10 percent share of the total UK hotel market.

The program will create an additional 10,000 jobs and mean an investment of £3.5 billion in new hotels. The major area of focus is Greater London which is expected to see a boost of 22,000 rooms alone. In Wales and Scotland, room numbers will increase by approximately 300 percent and 100 percent respectively before 2020.

Travelodge said it believes that around two thirds of its new hotels will be via organic growth but the remaining will come from regenerating existing hotels in targeted locations. The budget chain’s development team has been working on adapting its hotel format so that office buildings, factories and mills as well as existing hotels can be converted to a Travelodge hotel in minimal time. Travelodge currently operates 314 hotels (20,000 rooms) — nine in Ireland, three in Spain and rest in the UK.

It aims to be the biggest budget operator in London by the 2012 Olympics with over 7,000 rooms in the capital. For more information, visit www.travellodge.co.uk