Travelodge Group

Solid start to the year amid ongoing challenging market backdrop; continued investment and strategic progress

Travelodge Group Q1 trading update for the quarter ended 31 March 2026

  • Q1 revenue £206.8 million (2025: £198.4 million) – outperformance against competitive segment driven by positive contribution from new and maturing hotels, food and beverage (F&B) business and continued strong performance from Spanish business
  • Solid performance across London and the Regions – supported by good leisure demand and events 
  • F&B revenue growth of c.7% – benefitting from 85 Bar Café upgrades as part of refit programme alongside back-office system and menu upgrades
  • Spanish business continues to perform well – revenues up c.27% and EBITDA of £1.7 million (2025: £0.9 million) 
  • Continued strategic investments in growth and quality – over two-thirds of room estate upgraded to new look
  • Continued enhancements to customer proposition – including new room types and ancillaries range 
  • Solid liquidity position – year/end cash of £90.3 million; balancing investment in the core estate with development, and trading conditions 
  • Steady development progress, with a diversified pipeline of opportunities – one new leasehold UK hotel opened in Stratford, London and one further freehold opened in Bilbao, Spain in early Q2. Expect to open four further new UK leasehold hotels in 2026
  • Group EBITDA loss of £13.6 million (2025: loss of £8.4 million) – in-line with seasonal trading patterns, impacted by ongoing and significant inflationary cost pressures, partially mitigated through cost efficiencies 
  • Solid Q2 trading to-date, UK LFL RevPAR ahead of the competitive segment and encouraging long-lead booking patterns – Q2 trading to-date up c. 4% with strong events programme and continued investment in our customer offer

Jo Boydell, Chief Executive of Travelodge, said: “We delivered a solid performance in Q1, traditionally our quietest quarter, outperforming the competitive segment as our strategic investments delivered results despite challenging market conditions. We saw year-on-year revenue growth with the strongest performance driven by leisure demand, including record Six Nations revenue and our busiest Crufts and Cheltenham Festival bookings on record. We continued to invest in enhancing our customer proposition, with over two-thirds of our room estate upgraded to our new look as part of our refit programme. 

“In Q2 to-date, we have seen continued solid trading so far with booked revenue levels ahead of 2025. We have also seen good event demand including the Grand National, UK marathon events and The Security Event, a leading European commercial and domestic security event at the NEC.  

“We continue to be impacted by industry wide inflationary cost pressures, including the annualisation of increases in the National Living Wage and employer national insurance contributions, and from April, significant increases in business rates, and we are working hard to mitigate these pressures. Looking ahead, we are monitoring the potential impact from economic and wider geopolitical uncertainty on consumer and business confidence, and further cost inflation from the Employment Rights Act and Tourism Levies, however we continue to see opportunities and are well positioned for the medium-term. Our investments are delivering positive results in both the UK and Spain, supported by our diversified customer mix and resilient fundamentals.”  

27 May 2026 – Travelodge Group, which operates 631* hotels across the UK, Ireland and Spain, today announces financial results for the first quarter ended 31 March 2026. 

Travelodge reports Q1 revenue of £206.8 million (2025: £198.4 million), outperforming the competitive segment against a challenging market backdrop, supported by continued investment and a strong performance in Spain. We delivered a solid performance across London and the Regions.  

Overall, we saw the strongest performance driven by leisure demand, including our busiest Cheltenham Festival to date, record Six Nations revenue and Sheffield hosting the first UK-based European Figure Skating Championships in a decade. Corporate demand remains relatively softer, particularly in London.

We delivered good growth in food & beverage revenue, with a c. 7% increase in the UK compared to 2025, benefitting from our 85 Bar Café upgrades, back-office system and menu upgrades and the contribution from new and maturing hotels. 

Our industry leading operating cost model and strong supplier relationships, together with investment to deliver cost efficiencies, helped to control costs. However, this only partially mitigated the impact of industry wide inflationary pressures, including the annualisation of the increases in the National Living Wage and employer NIC’s, as well as the multi-year inflationary impact on our rent costs where a proportion of rent reviews are uncapped, due to the five yearly review cycle. These inflationary cost pressures totalled c.£6m in Q1, which resulted in Q1 EBITDA of £(13.6)m, compared to £(8.4)m in 2025.

Our liquidity position is solid, and we ended the quarter with cash of £90.3 million. We continue to monitor overall liquidity with trading conditions and will balance investment in the core estate with development.

Strategic investments delivering results

Travelodge continues to invest in the business to support growth, quality and efficiencies. Our refit programme is continuing, with over two-thirds of the estate now upgraded to the new look, alongside continued investment in the food & beverage offer and back-office system upgrades. This is already delivering tangible results with F&B revenue up c.7% in the UK, as noted above, as our upgraded Bar Cafés and menus drive demand.

Steady development of portfolio in the UK and Spain 

We made steady development progress in the first quarter with a new UK leasehold hotel opening in Stratford, London. We are also pleased that planning permission has been granted for the conversion of the office building we bought in St Paul’s, Central London, to a 95-bed hotel. The pace of new leasehold openings reflects the continued development challenges in the UK, impacted by high construction costs, planning timeframes and the availability of financing. We expect to open four further new UK leasehold hotels in 2026. 

In Spain, we opened a new freehold hotel in Bilbao in early Q2, building on the good development momentum in recent years that has seen our Spanish business grow from five hotels to 13 since 2023 and we have a good pipeline of development opportunities. 

Our Spanish business continues to perform strongly, with revenues growing by c. 27%, including the maturity impact of the new hotels acquired during 2024, and Q1 EBITDA of £1.7m (2025: £0.9m).

Maidenhead update

The safety and security of customers in our hotels is extremely important and we want everyone to be safe, and feel safe, in our hotels. We are deeply sorry for the distress experienced by the victim and for our handling of her case following a serious incident in our Maidenhead hotel in 2022, and the sentencing of the perpetrator in February 2026. 

We have recently made changes to strengthen our room access security policies and incident escalation procedures. These changes have been rolled out to all of our hotels, supported by enhanced training for our 12,000 customer-facing colleagues.

We are working at pace on a further internal review of our room access security processes and training, as part of which we are working with a leading Violence Against Women and Girls expert. We have also commissioned an independent review led by Paul Greaney KC, a leading barrister specialising in public inquiries concerning security, serious violent crime, and health and safety, to examine our room access security policies and escalation procedures.

Following the conclusion of the independent review later this summer, we will review the recommendations and determine any further actions we need to take.

Current trading and outlook: opportunities remain despite market uncertainty 

So far in Q2, we have seen solid demand across our broad range of business and leisure customers and there are encouraging long-lead booking patterns, supported by the strong event programme for the year ahead, with booked revenue levels ahead of 2025 levels. Our Spanish business also continues to perform well with revenues c. 20% ahead of 2025 levels. Overall total revenues for the quarter to date, including the contribution from new and maturing hotels, are 4% ahead of 2025 levels. Cost inflation remains, with the April 2026 business rate revaluation expected to increase this cost from approximately £38m in 2025 to approximately £50m in 2026.

Looking ahead, we see both opportunities and challenges and are monitoring how the current economic and geopolitical uncertainty may influence consumer and business confidence, as well as the impact of the Employment Rights Act and Tourism levies on cost inflation. Despite these factors, the UK MSE segment remains resilient, benefiting from its domestic focus, broad range of customers and focus on value that continues to resonate.

While broader uncertainty persists, our strong brand, direct distribution model and balanced customer mix position the Group well for the medium-term. Our investments in both the UK and Spain are delivering positive results, and we remain confident in the structural outlook for the budget hotel sector, supported by resilient fundamentals and an attractive supply backdrop. 

ENDS

Enquiries:

FGS Global      

Tel: 0207 251 38 01

Email: Travelodge-LON@fgsglobal.com 

About Travelodge

Travelodge is one of the leading platforms in the UK and is the second largest hotel brand in the UK with 631* hotels and approximately 49,000* guest bedrooms, right across the UK as well as in Ireland and Spain. 

In Spain, Travelodge has an established profitable presence and has ambitious growth plans within this market and has identified the top key locations where it would like to open additional hotels in Spain.

Welcoming over 22 million guests annually across the UK, Ireland and Spain, the majority of Travelodge hotels are located in major cities, towns and holiday hotspots as well as by airports and key business hubs. With over 93% of its hotels rated 4 dots or above on TripAdvisor, Travelodge is proud to offer guests across its diverse customer base a good value experience – whether they are travelling for business or leisure.

Whether out celebrating a birthday, going to a concert or sporting event, visiting friends and family, taking a business trip, working away from home, or taking a short break, we help people to go and do their thing by Being the Brilliant Base.

Travelodge continues to invest in its ongoing hotel refit programme, with over two-thirds of the room estate now featuring the new look and feel across refits and new hotels. The brand is also continually evolving its quality offering to deliver a better experience for its diverse mix of business and leisure guests such as its new look Bar Café design, 85 Bar Café, which has been rolled out to selected hotels in the UK and Spain as part of the refit programme.

Travelodge is focusing on its environmental and social impact, with sustainability integral to its business strategy. Its Better Future sustainability plan aims to build a more sustainable future for its customers, colleagues and the planet, underpinned by three core pillars: Inclusive – ensuring we are accessible, inclusive and well-priced to our customers and colleagues; Caring – creating a caring and healthy environment for our colleagues and customers and ensuring their wellbeing; and Conscious – Travelodge is conscious of its impact on the planet, taking into account the waste it produces, the energy and other resources it consumes and the carbon emissions it generates.

For further information visit travelodge.co.uk or the Travelodge Hotels Limited LinkedIn page.

*as at 31 March 2026