Inclusive
Our people are our greatest asset and are what makes our business successful
During 2024 we have made good progress in improving our gender balance in senior roles, as well as developing our colleagues across the business, helping our colleagues, learn more, earn more and belong.
Diversity & Inclusion
We believe everyone should feel welcome and part of the Travelodge team.
People Development & Labour Practices
At Travelodge we want people to feel they have the opportunity to be their best.
Social Mobility
Our belief that potential — not background — should determine opportunity remains at the heart of all we do.
In 2023, Travelodge embarked on a bold and purposeful journey — the first in the UK hospitality industry to publish a Social Mobility Impact Report, underlining our commitment to dismantling barriers to opportunity across our workforce and communities.
As a business, we are committed to supporting and driving social mobility. This is a key principle of our People strategy, and forms an integral part of our long-term sustainability plan, particularly in the area of social impact.
With the launch of our latest Social Mobility Progress Report, we mark an important step in Travelodge’s journey to make a positive impact.
Gender Diversity
We’re committed to improving gender diversity at all levels of leadership. Women currently make up 69% of our workforce and, in line with our Inclusive pillar, we want to ensure that leadership opportunities reflect that balance.
Ethnic Diversity
Our ambition is to build a workforce that reflects the communities we serve. As part of our efforts to improve ethnic diversity in senior leadership, we have set a target that, by the end of 2025, 20% of shortlisted candidates for senior roles will come from a minority ethnic background, with the aim of 10% ultimately stepping into leadership positions.
People Development & Labour Practices
At Travelodge we want people to feel they can be their best, which is why we’ve set some big targets for internal promotions and multiskilling. And with many hourly paid colleagues, we are always mindful of giving people the opportunity to earn more for doing more.
“We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace, providing decent work with opportunities to learn more and earn more, where everyone can be their true self and belong.”
It is essential our colleagues know what opportunities are available to them so they can develop and progress. Last year we launched 2 new levels of our management development programme Aspire,’ to ‘Our management development programme Aspire, enables hotel colleagues to progress their careers from Team Member to Hotel Manager, as well as having the opportunity to achieve a recognised qualification as part of their journey.
In our hotels, a larger percentage of women work in lower-paid roles compared to senior roles, however, between 70% and 80% of hotel management role vacancies are filled internally each year. Developing colleagues to enable them to progress into more senior roles will, in turn, support our gender diversity targets.
The importance of housekeeping is key for Travelodge along with the capability to assist customers when needed. Therefore, we always encourage colleagues to complete training to upskill them in other roles and become multi-skilled.
Our head office colleagues wanting to develop their careers can take advantage of an in-house People Management Programme, and in 2022 we launched Limitless, aimed at middle management colleagues with a focus on health, motivation and performance.
Customer Accessibility
Making all customers feel welcome and supported is central to our commitment to offering everyone a comfortable stay. We’ve continued to enhance accessibility across our hotels and remove barriers for customers with physical disabilities.
In 2024, we made a number of updates to our accessible rooms based on customer feedback and the latest inclusive design standards. We’ve added new headboards with built-in power and lighting to make things easier, along with movable bedside tables and more surface space to better support guests with limited mobility. We’ve also redesigned our accessible bathroom pods to make them more comfortable and practical — and these new features will be included as standard in all our new hotels. These changes are part of a wider hotel refit programme, so accessibility upgrades are being built in as we modernise our hotels.