Massive expansion for Travelodge

Travelodge, the UK's fastest growing hotel chain, has today confirmed it will add 12 new hotels to its offering, at a combined investment value of £77 million.

Giving the hotel company an additional 1,443 rooms, the expansion will also create 200 new jobs with all entry level staff being recruited through Job Centre Plus.

The new hotels will include a new 230 room location in Cambridge, a 111 room property in Twickenham and a 279 room hotel at London Waterloo.

New hotels will also be built in Edinburgh, Liverpool, Northampton and Egham, home to Royal Holloway, University of London.

Upon construction, these sites will add an additional 1,443 rooms to Travelodge's existing 26,400 room portfolio.

In London, the 575 rooms take Travelodge's total to 5,000 rooms, keeping it on track to become the largest hotelier in London by the time of the 2012 Olympics.

Two of the deals announced today also continue Travelodge's recent trend of working with the UK's leading supermarkets. The new Egham hotel will be built above a Waitrose while the Rugby property will be constructed on top of a Tesco.

In addition to the exchanges announced today, a further 16 hotels across the UK are being constructed at present. When completed, these hotels will add a further 1,560 rooms to the portfolio over the next two years.

Paul Harvey, Managing Director for Development at Travelodge, said: "The addition of so many sites is just the start to what will be a large number of exchanges in 2009. Since the onset of the recession we have been offered more locations and going concerns than ever before, often in prime locations that just one year ago would have been unviable."

Chris O'Toole