TRAVELODGE’S GROWTH CONTINUES TO ACCELERATE
Total sales up 13%
7.2 million rooms sold
70 new hotels opened in 2010
96 property exchanges
13 million customers stayed with Travelodge in 2010
Positive outlook for 2011, Travelodge is currently building 36 hotels & has opened four hotels already
Guy Parsons, Travelodge CEO commented: “Despite the tough climate in 2010, we have delivered a robust performance whilst continuing our strategic UK growth programme and demonstrating Travelodge’s continued strong recovery.
We served record numbers of customers, grew total sales and opened 70 new hotels in excellent locations, targeting sites that would have been beyond our reach before the recession. The deal with Mitchells and Butlers, which saw us acquire 52 of their hotels, shows the innovative approach we have taken towards our aggressive growth plans.
With a continued focus on driving growth this year, we have already opened four hotels and are currently building a further 36 hotels. We are creating 725 new jobs, and ensuring we are well on track to reach over 1,100 hotels and 100,000 rooms by 2025.
We therefore remain confident on the longer term outlook for Travelodge, with stable current trading and our strong growth pipeline ensuring that we are well placed for 2011.”
2010 Trading Performance
Total sales grew by 13%, with total sales up 16% in London and Provincial up 12%
Like for like growth up 6%, led by 11% growth in London and 2% in Provincial
Total rooms sold up 13% to 7.2 million
13 million customers stayed with Travelodge – up 12% from previous year
Occupancy up 3 points, with London at peak occupancy from the second quarter
Total costs per room remained flat
2010 Expansion
70 new hotels opened in the year
96 exchanges, a record year
Created 697new jobs
65 staff members graduated from the Managers Development Programme to become hotel managers
2011 Outlook
Currently building 36 hotels (3,982 rooms)
Four hotels (272 rooms) already opened this year. Locations include: Cardiff city centre, Paignton Seafront, Horsham town centre and Southgate
Creating 725 new jobs
Trading continuing in line with market
Guy Parsons concluded: “The year has started in line with management’s expectations though clearly there has been an impact on the consumer from the recent VAT increase and the fuel and energy price increases. In terms of split, London’s performance is tracking against strong comparatives and the provinces continue to recover through a continuing seasonal weak demand period.”
Over the last five years Travelodge has heavily focused on city centre growth to rebalance its portfolio away from roadside locations. Today 18% of Travelodge rooms are in London, 62% of rooms are in major cities and towns with the remaining 20% of rooms located at major motorways and roadside locations.
New business initiatives include:
Travelodge is the UK’s first hotel brand to launch an electronic charity donation box with Pennies:
In February 2011, Travelodge was the UK’s first hotel brand to launch an electronic online charity donation box with the Pennies Foundation. This facility allows customers to round up the price of their room and food purchase to the nearest pound with just one click – when booking online. The revenue of the additional pennies generated via this channel will be equally split 75% to Travelodge’s nominated charities; Cancer Research UK and KidsOut – with the remaining 25% contribution going to the other UK charities nominated by The Pennies Foundation which includes: Shelter, Alzheimer’s Society, RNIB and Special Olympics GB.
Travelodge is expecting to raise over £200,000 for its nominated charities via Pennies and a calendar of
fundraising activities over the next 12 months.
Travelodge launches new Mr Sleep Ad
Following on from the success of the ‘retailer of sleep’ programme Travelodge introduced last year, which brought the characters of Mr Sleep and the Zzz squad to national attention. Travelodge has launched a new TV ad using Mr Sleep and Big Ted as brand ambassadors to communicate – the fact that Travelodge has a range of different styles of hotels in various locations across the UK. Enabling customers to go where they want to go and do what they want to do and sleep tight from £19.
In the ad the two teddy bears are seen travelling across the UK, paragliding in rural Redditch, having fun at the seaside in Eastbourne and going out in London – before settling in for a good night’s sleep in the London Covent Garden Travelodge hotel.
The ad is supported with the sound track of The Bees cover version of the Mamas and Papas track ‘Go Where You Wanna Go’. The voiceover artist for Mr Sleep and Big Ted is Simon Greenall, the famous British actor, writer and voice artist – who also provides the voice for of Aleksandr Orlov in the comparethemeerkat.com adverts.
