Travelodge, the UK’s first budget hotel brand, celebrates 20 years of trading at UK seaside resorts this summer. The hotel chain opened its first seaside hotel in Brighton in 1999 and opened its 36th seaside resort hotel at Rhyl beach in March.
To mark this 20 year milestone anniversary, Travelodge has today announced it is looking to grow its coastal hotel network with a further 26 properties in seaside resorts and coastal towns in the British Isles.
This programme will offer the growing leisure traveller market more choice, greater value coastal holiday destinations and support local coastal economies with their regeneration plans.
This coastal expansion programme of 26 hotels would represent a potential investment of £165m for third party investors and would create around 650 new jobs.
The Travelodge coastal development target list stretches the length and breadth of the UK map and beyond. Starting from Lerwick, the capital of the Shetlands, going down and across to Pwllheli, in Wales, and then, down to Cornwall and beyond to Jersey and Guernsey. (See end for the full list of 26 locations.)
The group’s latest seaside hotel opening, Rhyl Seafront Travelodge, is the town’s first branded hotel to be located at the beach. It is also the company’s ninth Local Authorities development partnership.
Denbighshire County Council recognised that a hotel could play a leading role in the regeneration of Rhyl and actively sought this innovative partnership with Travelodge to help boost its local economy. The hotel has been built on Denbighshire County Council-owned land and forms part of a wider, council-led £25m regeneration programme along the Rhyl seafront.
Our Local Authorities development programme uses bespoke agreements with unique funding structures, all of which have enabled Local Authorities to utilise their existing assets, create jobs, generate income, and help to regenerate land in strategically important locations.
Travelodge hotels in this programme are built on surplus local authority land, with the funding provided either through the Local Authorities internal resource or via low-cost funding from the Public Works Loan Board or third party resources.
Upon completion of the hotel development, local authorities have the choice of either retaining ownership of the hotel and receiving an annual rent into the Council’s revenue budget or selling the hotel with Travelodge as its operator.
Rhyl Seafront Travelodge, a 69-sea view room hotel with on-site restaurant called the Bar Café and car-park represents an investment of £5 million for the landlord, Denbighshire County Council. The hotel has got off to a flying start, with room rates start from £29 and is set for a busy year ahead.
Tony O Brien, Travelodge UK Development Director, said, “We are seeing the rebirth of British seaside resorts and coastal towns as a result of Britons changing holiday habits. We are becoming a strong Staycation nation that likes to take lots of short breaks throughout the year rather than a traditional two week block holiday.
'To support this growing trend, we are looking to enter new markets and extend our network of coastal location hotels so that we can offer more choice and greater value to the modern leisure traveller.”
He continued:,“There are significant regeneration and modernisation projects taking place in seaside towns and cities across the UK, and we have identified 26 coastal areas that could benefit from a Travelodge hotel. We will kick start our expansion programme by writing to the Local Authority in each region to see if we can play a pivotal role in their regeneration programme like we have done in Rhyl.
'Investing in a low-cost hotel like Travelodge is an increasingly attractive choice, as it draws visitors, creates jobs and helps boost the local economy.”
“This expansion programme would represent an investment of £165 million for third party investors and create around 650 new jobs. It would also support local economies as research shows on average our customers spend double their room rate with local businesses which annually results in a multimillion boost for the local economy.”
The list below details the 26 seaside resort and coastal towns where Travelodge is looking to open a hotel:
1. Aberystwyth
2. Bognor Regis
3. Bournemouth
4. Bude
5. Canterbury / Whistable
6. Deal / Sandwich
7. Eastbourne
8. Falmouth
9. Folkestone
10. Guernsey
11. Hove
12. Jersey
13. Lerwick
14. Looe / Fowey
15. Lowestoft
16. Newquay
17. Oban
18. Penarth
19. Penzance
20. Pwllheli
21. Shoreham-by-Sea
22. St Ives
23. Tenby
24. Truro
25. Western Super Mare
26. Weymouth