Budget hotel chain Travelodge is getting a whole new look in time for the 2012 Olympics. The chain has not had a full change in the design of its “no frills” rooms since it came onto the scene in 1985.
Chief Operating Officer Guy Parsons said: “By the time the 2012 Olympics arrive we will have opened a further 200 hotels and we haven’t redesigned the bedrooms for 22 years, meaning other hotels look more contemporary than us.”
All new hotels (around 20 are due to open this year) will feature the new rooms. The first will be Sunbury M3 in September, and the re-design will be rolled out over the next three years at all Travelodge hotels across the UK.
The new room, designed by retail designers The One Off Company, will be contemporary in style with a red, white and blue colour scheme, mood lighting and room furnishings made from recycled timber. Rooms will feature digital flat screen televisions, wifi and revamped en-suite facilities.
Parsons says: “The One Off Company looked at the use of lighting, so in the bathroom they thought about lights for shaving and where female business travellers need it for putting on makeup.”
But the hotel still won’t offer any toiletries. Parsons says: “There is £140m wasted in the hotel industry supplying things that people don’t want and one thing consistently rejected by our customers is the introduction of shampoo – the vast majority of people prefer to bring their own with them.”
Travelodge’s dining area, known as Bar/Café, has also been changed. Parsons explains: “It’s still all in one area but it has got three zoned areas for relaxing, eating and drinking with a very distinct looking bar.”
The cost of the redesign will not affect the low prices Travelodge offers its guests. Rooms can be booked for as little as £26 per night and in the last two weeks the chain introduced a facility to pay for breakfast when making a reservation online.
In other news:
Travelodge also announced last week that it is removing all pay-per-view adult channels from its in-room televisions. The chain has seen the number of families staying at its hotels double since 2003, and is replacing the adult content with 18 free family-friendly channels. By January next year all Travelodge rooms will be non-smoking and next year will see an acceleration in openings, with a target of 700 new hotels by 2020 in an effort to offer 7,000 additional rooms to the capital by the 2012 Olympics.
