Travelodge is to open 22 new hotels across the UK in deals worth £165 million.
The budget chain has also forged a partnership with clothing retailer Arcadia Group to develop a 96-room hotel above the Topshop store in Princes Street, Edinburgh. The property is due to open in summer 2012 under a 35-year lease agreement costing £10 million.
The new addition will increase Travelodge’s room stock in the Scottish capital to 1,230 rooms in 13 properties.
Other new hotels, which represent an additional 2,198 rooms, include five sites in London and new hotels at Gatwick and Glasgow airports. Other locations include Eastleigh, Loughborough, Sittingbourne, Bedford, Darlington, Altrincham, Malvern, Aylesbury, Newquay, Woking, Hemel Hempstead and Kings Lynn.
The company has opened 18 hotels in the first half of 2011 and is currently building a further 43, with 21 due to open before the end of the year. Once completed, the new sites will boost the Travelodge portfolio to 540 hotels and 39,957 rooms.
The new openings will create 1,300 new jobs across the country. The company plans to have 1,100 hotels in Europe with more than 100,000 rooms by 2025.
Chief executive Guy Parsons said: “Today’s consumers want the certainty and services offered by branded budget hotel operators. They are moving away in significant numbers from the independent, unbranded accommodation sector, much of which is of poor quality.
“This trend is set to grow further and Travelodge is stepping in to give customers what they want – a good night’s sleep at an affordable price in great locations.”
He added: “The strength of Travelodge’s growth model has clearly been demonstrated, with the first six months of 2011 being the strongest in the company’s history. We are not just exchanging contracts but most importantly finance is being secured upfront, to enable our developers to start on-site immediately.
“Everybody knows how difficult it is to obtain bank funding at the moment, so to have financed so many new schemes must be one of the biggest success stories of the UK property industry.”