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 has opened its 36th seaside resort hotel at Rhyl beach.
To mark this 20 year milestone anniversary, Travelodge, who operates 584 hotels across the UK, Ireland and Spain – today announces 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 program will offer the growing leisure traveler market more choice, greater value coastal holiday destinations and support local coastal economies with their regeneration plans.
This coastal expansion program of 26 hotels would represent a potential investment of £165 million 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.
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.
Rhyl Seafront Travelodge, a 69-sea view room hotel with an 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 traveler.”
“There are significant regeneration and modernization 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 program by writing to the Local Authority in each region to see if we can play a pivotal role in their regeneration program as 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.”
The list below details the 26 seaside resort and coastal towns where Travelodge is looking to open a hotel:
- Aberystwyth
- Bognor Regis
- Bournemouth
- Bude
- Canterbury / Whistable
- Deal / Sandwich
- Eastbourne
- Falmouth
- Folkestone
- Guernsey
- Hove
- Jersey
- Lerwick
- Looe / Fowey
- Lowestoft
- Newquay
- Oban
- Penarth
- Penzance
- Pwllheli
- Shoreham-by-Sea
- St Ives
- Tenby
- Truro
- Western Super Mare
- Weymouth
