Travelodge cashing in on staycationers
HOTEL chain Travelodge has bounced back strongly from Covid and expects to benefit from the rising popularity of holidays in the UK.
The group reported a 1.8 per cent increase in revenue for the last quarter of 2021 – compared with prepandemic 2019 – to £185million.
While revenue for the year was down by 23 per cent compared with 2019, Travelodge said trading has improved following the lifting of work-from-home guidance.
The company said it was expecting strong demand again from leisure travellers and is upgrading 60 of its hotels this year to accommodate them.
Travelodge chairman Martin Robinson said: “The business continued to out-perform the market for the seventh year in a row and enjoyed a record-breaking summer.
“And, in line with our growth plans, we opened a further 17 new hotels.
“Trading so far in 2022 has been extremely encouraging, despite a slow start amid the Omicron restrictions in January.
“We are excited to launch our new budget-luxe hotel design, which offers a more premium look and feel, while maintaining our great value price
proposition. This is our most radical brand transformation to date and has been created in response to Britain becoming a nation of budget travellers, with more of us choosing to stay in [these] hotels.
“The budget hotel segment, while not immune from the broader economic uncertainty, has proven resilient and continues to recover
ahead of the rest of the UK hotel market. We believe that the opportunities to grow our business have never been more exciting.
“With our large, diversified network of hotels, strong brand, value proposition, and focus on domestic budget travel, we are well positioned to benefit in the anticipated recovery.”