Travelodge celebrates its 30th anniversary and announces its looking to open seven more hotels across the county.
The West Midlands’ first budget hotel brand, Travelodge, is celebrating its 30th anniversary in the county this year and to mark this milestone, the company is opening its first hotel in West Bromwich.
Travelodge, one of the UK’s largest independent hotel brands, opened its first hotel in the West Midlands in 1987 – Birmingham Frankly M5 southbound Travelodge. The 62-room hotel is trading strongly today and its two receptionists, Carol Masters and Angela Bradshaw have been working at the hotel for over 20 years.
West Bromwich Travelodge is the Company’s 545th hotel and is also the first of two new hotels Travelodge is opening in the West Midlands this year. The second Travelodge hotel is scheduled to open later this year in Dudley – the town’s third Travelodge hotel.
West Bromwich Travelodge, a 78-room hotel with onsite car-parking and Bar Café is located in Providence Place, a multi-million pound regeneration area. The hotel represents an investment of £6 million for the landlord and has created 30 new jobs within the local community.
At the opening event, Travelodge also announced that the West Midlands is a key growth area for the company and that it is looking to expand its portfolio and is looking for seven new hotels sites across the county. Locations include: Solihull, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Worcester, Edgbaston and two sites in Coventry.
This expansion programme will boost Travelodge’s portfolio to 35 hotels in the West Midlands and will create over 200 new jobs.
A champagne reception was held to celebrate the opening of West Bromwich where the newly appointed Mayor of Sandwell, Councillor Ahmadul Haque M.B.E, joined Tom Edwards, Travelodge Revenue Director to officially open the hotel.
A word from Tom Edwards, Travelodge Revenue Director
Tom Edwards said:
“We are delighted to be celebrating our 30th anniversary in the West Midlands by opening our first hotel in West Bromwich. Over the last three decades, Travelodge has become famous across the county for offering unbeatable value and making travel affordable for everyone, which has helped attract more business and leisure travellers to the area.”
“As we look to the future, the West Midlands is a key growth area for Travelodge. Following our £5 million investment in upgrading the customer experience and raising quality levels across our West Midlands hotels, we have seen a significant increase in sales; interestingly with more business customers staying in our hotels than ever before.
The West Midlands economy is growing at pace and with increasing visitor numbers to the area, there is still a shortage of good quality accommodation at a great value price. Therefore to meet this growing consumer demand we are looking for new hotel sites in the following locations: Solihull, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Worcester, Edgbaston and two sites in Coventry. This expansion programme will boost Travelodge’s portfolio to 35 hotels in the West Midlands and create over 200 new jobs.”
A word from The Mayor of Sandwell
The Mayor, Councillor Ahmadul Haque M.B.E said:
“We are delighted that Travelodge has come to West Bromwich and support the town’s economic development goals. I believe the addition of Travelodge will have a positive impact on the town by providing employment for local residents, affordable accommodation for visitors and generating extra spend in the wider local economy.”
“West Bromwich Travelodge is located in a prime location next to The Black Country Route, a gateway to the rest of the West Midlands. It has been a pleasure to be part of the official opening event and I wish the hotel team the best of luck for the future.”
A word from the West Bromwich Hotel manager
West Bromwich Travelodge is being managed by Deano Farshbaf who joined Travelodge in 2013 as a night-time receptionist for the summer period. Deano has successfully climbed the career ladder via Travelodge’s in-house management development programme into a management position. He says:
“Not in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be making history by managing West Bromwich’s first Travelodge in the area, it’s such an honour.”
“I am very proud to have built a fantastic team who are as passionate as myself about delivering great customer service. Our West Bromwich Travelodge has got off to a flying start. We are booked out with business customers during the week and with leisure travellers at the weekend. Our new hotel will help to attract new visitors to the area, which is great news for the local economy, as our research shows annually Travelodge customers will spend nearly £2 million with local businesses during their stay”
Travelodge is opening new hotels throughout 2017.
For the latest openings check out our list of brand new Travelodge hotels.
