Hampshire: Travelodge seeks 10 new hotels

Travelodge is seeking to increase its presence in Hampshire by boosting its portfolio with a further 10 hotels across the county. 

The company already has 15 hotels across Hampshire and employs over 200 staff members. This investment would create 150 new jobs within the region, boosting the local economy annually by £11 million.

New sites on the radar include: Andover, Basingstoke, Christchurch, Fareham/Portchester, Fleet, Lymington, Petersfield, Portsmouth, Waterlooville and Winchester.

Travelodge UK development director Tony O’Brien said: “Hampshire is one of our top performing counties within the UK, with demand growing at great pace from both business and leisure travellers.

“We are excited about the growth opportunities here and hope to be able to announce more details soon about specific sites.”

Alongside this announcement, the teams at Portsmouth and Alton Fourmarks are celebrating being among the first of 500 hotels from the Travelodge estate to benefit from a major refurbishment, which includes a new room design and a luxury bed called the Travelodge Dreamer - deemed in the industry 'the Rolls Royce of beds'. This means over 150 rooms have been refitted in Hampshire already, at a cost of £650,000.

The work is part of a company-wide brand investment of £223 million this year to help further grow the business, strengthen the brand offering and make Travelodge the best-value hotel chain in the UK.

Hotels in Bournemouth, Southampton and on the Isle of Wight are due to be refitted later this year and by the end of 2013, Travelodge plans to have refitted more than 50% of all its rooms.

“This capital expenditure will help us grow our business, strengthen our product offering and make Travelodge the best value hotel chain in the UK,” added O'Brien.