Modern Slavery Act Statement 2024

At Travelodge, we are committed to supporting human rights and we take our responsibilities under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 seriously. We have a zero-tolerance approach to slavery and human trafficking and are committed to understanding the risks so that we can work towards ensuring that there is no modern slavery in our business or supply chains.

Structure of Travelodge

Travelodge is one of the UK’s leading hotel brands based on the number of hotels and rooms operated. The group has approximately 600 hotels, primarily across the UK and also in Spain and Ireland; the majority of these hotels are held on a leasehold model and we have a small number of managed and franchised hotels. We operate in the value sector of the hotel market and employ around 13,000 people across our hotels and support offices.

In 2023, Thame and London Limited was the holding company of the Travelodge group which includes Travelodge Hotels Limited, the principal UK trading company.

Our supply chains

As you would expect in the hospitality sector, our suppliers fall into two broad groups – hotel suppliers and support suppliers. Hotel suppliers cover all goods and services used in the running of a hotel from food and beverages, linen and cleaning supplies to fixtures, fittings, equipment and maintenance services. Our support suppliers provide items such as office supplies, IT support and systems, and professional and consultancy services. We also work with employment agencies that supply a limited number of people to work in our support office and hotels.

Key procurement for suppliers is managed at a central head office level. We select our suppliers carefully and where appropriate carry out due diligence on these parties and endeavour to contractually require them to comply with applicable laws.

Our anti-slavery initiatives and policies

We manage modern slavery through our Safety, Security and Risk management committee, to monitor and assess our practices in this area and encourage continued improvement. Our commitment to social responsibility is reflected in our employee training programmes and company policies and we expect the same high standards from our suppliers.

We encourage our colleagues to report any ethical concerns, and our Whistleblowing Policy (which includes a specific section on modern slavery) and the use of a third-party company to enable confidential whistleblowing disclosures in several different languages, is intended to make this simple for all colleagues. We aim to ensure that appropriate protections are in place for any colleague who raises a concern, without fear of retaliation.

We also implement ‘right-to-work’ checks on all new colleagues and undertake regular checks on shift patterns and the hours worked by our colleagues. We understand the importance of embedding a culture of respect and fair treatment of others across all activities.

Training

We recognise that awareness amongst our colleagues is important in preventing modern slavery. There is specific training for colleagues in our head office with higher-risk roles. We also train our hotel colleagues on our Safeguarding policy, which includes a section on Modern Slavery. This training explains what Modern Slavery is, identifies signs of Modern Slavery and how to report any concerns.

Due diligence processes for slavery and human trafficking

We have assessed the areas of our business and supply chains where there is a risk of modern slavery and human trafficking taking place (even if this is small), whether from an activity or geographical perspective. Our central procurement function assists us to have visibility of our suppliers and a better understanding of the risk areas.

When taking on new suppliers in areas which we consider to be higher risk, we undertake supplier due diligence and engage with potential suppliers to understand the actions taken by them to reduce the risk of modern slavery and human trafficking in their supply chains. Comprehensive questions are included in requests for tender where appropriate. We include contractual clauses in all our higher-risk supplier agreements and also in our standard template supply agreements setting out requirements for monitoring and tackling modern slavery and human trafficking issues and compliance with legislation.

Key performance indicators

We would expect that any incident of modern slavery would be a breach of our company policies, contractual terms and/or law.

We continue to focus on the assessment of our supply chain and high-risk areas as well as on ensuring that we do not have any modern slavery in our own business.

Further steps

We are proud of the steps Travelodge has taken so far to combat modern slavery and human trafficking. However, we recognise that this is an area which requires continual monitoring and improvement and we will continue to do this. Steps which we intend to take on an ongoing basis include:

  • monitor the ongoing revisions to the Modern Slavery Act,
  • continue to focus on new high-risk suppliers as well as renewals of relationships with existing suppliers; and
  • continue to keep our training under review to ensure it remains appropriate.

At Travelodge, we firmly believe in being a responsible business and continuing to develop our approach to combating modern slavery forms a key part of this.

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ended 31 December 2023. This statement has been approved by Travelodge’s board of directors, who will review and update it annually.

Signature of Director:

Name of Director: Joanna Boydell

Date: 06/06/2024