Budget hotel chain reports record occupancy

Tough economic conditions helped Travelodge enjoy a strong year during 2010 as the group benefited from budget-conscious consumers.

The hotel chain, which offers rooms from just £19 a night, had a record 13 million customers stay with it during the year - 12% more than in 2009. It also continued its expansion programme, opening a further 70 hotels during the course of the year.

The group credited the recession with enabling it to target sites that would have been beyond its reach before the economic downturn, while it also completed a deal with pubs group Mitchells and Butlers under which it acquired 52 of its Innkeeper's Lodges.

The acquisitions saw the group continue its strategy of shifting away from roadside locations to city Centre ones. Only a fifth of its rooms are now on the edge of motorways and major roads, with 18% in London and the remaining 62% in other major towns and cities.

Source: The Independent