Today, at the opening of its 500th hotel in Stratford London, the city’s biggest hotelier, Travelodge, has announced that it’s seeking to open a further 184 hotels across the capital by 2025. With a requirement for at least one hotel in each of the London boroughs, Travelodge is seeking to develop 7,820,400 sq ft – the largest requirement of any business in London. This equates to:
• Six Shards, which when open will be the largest building in Europe*
• Nine O2 Arenas**
• Nine Buckingham Palace’s***
• Forty Two Tesco Extra’s****
These 184 new hotel openings will create around 5,000 new jobs across London and ten per cent of these positions will be recruited via JuMP – Travelodge’s Junior Management Apprenticeship Programme.
This morning, Tourism Minister, John Penrose MP, officially opened London Stratford Travelodge, the budget chain’s 500th hotel. The 188-room modular build property which is located a few minutes walk away from the Olympic Stadium is a £15.5 million investment and has created 30 new jobs within the community.
Guy Parsons, Travelodge Chief Executive said: “To open our 500th Travelodge hotel yards from the entrance to the Olympic Stadium is a milestone that everyone in the company is extremely proud of. Travelodge has come a long way since it opened its first hotel back in 1985 on the A38 in Barton-Under-Needwood.”
“In 2010, at the opening of our 400th hotel, we said that we would be the biggest hotelier in London in time for the 2012 Olympics and true to our word we have achieved this target. When the Games start on the 27th July 2012, we will have 53 hotels in the capital but our London growth story is only just beginning.”
John Penrose MP, Minister for Tourism and Heritage said: “To reach the milestone of 500 hotels is a fantastic achievement and I congratulate Travelodge on reaching it.”
“Tourism is one of the largest industries in the UK and it is vital that we offer a broad spectrum of hotel provision. The budget sector is really growing in Britain and I look forward to opening Travelodge\’s 600th in a couple of year’s time!\”
London Stratford Travelodge was funded by Hotbed UK, the private investor syndicate. Peveril Securities and Active Estates were the JV developers.
* The Sq Ft of the Shard is 1,200,000 sq ft
** The Sq Ft of the 02 Arena in Greenwich is 865,687 sq ft
*** Buckingham Palace is 830,000 sq ft
**** The largest Tesco Extra in the country is in Walkden, totaling 185,000 sq ft
