Travelodge UK

In the 1980s, Charles Forte bought the US Travelodge brand with the hope of establishing it in Britain. He attached them to many of his roadside Little Chef restaurants and initially named them Little Chef Lodges[5]. In 1985, after rebranding, Travelodge became Britain's first value hotel brand when it launched in the UK, opening its first hotel at Barton-under-Needwood in the heart of England. Since then, the company has expanded to over 570 hotels in the UK, located in the centre of major cities, including London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Manchester, Birmingham, Belfast, in most of Britain's larger towns, as well as popular seaside locations and vital roadside stops.

Travelodge are continuing their expansion across the United Kingdom with c.15 new openings every year. As well as this, the ongoing refurbishment programme that Travelodge are carrying out involves upgrading rooms across the estate and replacing all old pull-out beds with new Sleepeezee models in their family rooms.

A Travelodge at Leeds Bradford Airport

In 2006, the BBC programme Watchdog highlighted Travelodge's policy of overbooking their hotels, turning guests away even when they have booked against a credit card.[6]

To advertise its new location in Plymouth in 2004, Travelodge ran a poster campaign using the phrase "Other hotels in Plymouth fleece you, we prefer duvets" which was not well received by other hotels in the area and was reported to the Advertising Standards Authority.[7]

On more than one occasion, Travelodge have wrongly suspected fathers of child grooming or pedophilia after booking a shared room with their teenage daughters.[8][9] Travelodge apologised to the fathers on each occasion, citing their commitment to protecting children and vulnerable people.

In March 2020 The Guardian reported that Travelodge gave homeless families and key workers only two hours’ notice to leave when it shut 360 of its UK hotels in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Although the government had told hotels to close, it later exempted those accommodating key workers or homeless people. [10]

In 2007 media around the world reported that David and Jean Davidson, a retired couple originally from Sheffield, had stayed at Travelodges in Newark, Worksop and Grantham for a combined total of 22 years, making each lodge their home.[11] The retired banker[12] and naval sailor and his wheelchair-using wife found the cost of their stay comparable with living in a house, but with the benefits of housekeeping service and without added costs such as council tax or utilities.