Summer sales up 15% at Travelodge despite impact of London riots
Budget hotel chain Travelodge has seen a total sales growth of 15% over the summer.
In a trading update, the group said that occupancy was at 83% for the 13 weeks from 1 June to 30 August, while like-for-like revpar was up 3%.
London continued to lead the way, with sales growth of 19%, compared with 15% in the provinces. Travelodge said that two percentage points had been lost owing to the impact of the London riots, during which period it received more cancellations than bookings.
Travelodge CEO Guy Parsons said the summer had been successful with 15 new hotels exchanged, with a total of 1,432 rooms.
He added: "Despite continued high inflation, costs per room were held flat with last year and our return on capital continues to lead the sector.
"Due to hefty financial cutbacks the Staycation break has been bigger than ever this summer, with 35% of Britons holidaying at home. In response to this growing trend, we took a strategic decision to focus on increasing occupancy rates by lowering prices, funded by our efficient low cost base and allocated 1.5 million rooms at £19 or less. This resulted in our coastal, tourist cities and holiday hot-spot Travelodges achieving very high occupancy throughout the summer."
Of the 15 new hotel exchanges that took place during this summer, eight properties are in London (Clapham, Wembley, Cricklewood, Harrow, Tooting, Woolwich, Bethnal Green and Sutton). The others are in Woking, Newquay, Ipswich, Sunderland, Burton, Crawley and Hemel Hempstead.
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By James Stagg
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