Travelodge 2017 Books Left Behind Index

The Handmaid’s Tale, The Girl on the Train, Big Little Lies, IT, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – make the Travelodge 2017 Books Left Behind Index    

Travelodge the UK’s first budget hotel chain which operates 550 hotels across the UK has today revealed its annual Books Left Behind Index. Interestingly this year’s findings have revealed that in 2017, half of the top 20 most popular books left behind in Travelodge hotels are paperbacks that have become topical box office hit movies and critically acclaimed TV series.

This includes movies such as: The Girl on The Train, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, IT and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Popular TV series books includes: The Handmaid’s Tale, Sharp Objects, Big Little Lies and Thirteen Reasons Why.

Also for the first time ever, two colouring books have made the top 20 list of books left behind this includes The Secret Garden: An inky Treasure Hunt & Colouring Book and Harry Potter Colouring Book.

J.K Rowling and comedian turned novelist, David Walliams are the only two authors to have two books in Travelodge’s top 20 Books Left Behind Index.  This includes: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Bad Dad and The World’s Worst Children.  

Annually Travelodge welcomes 19 million business and leisure customers across it 550 hotels. As part of this year’s findings, the company’s hotel managers have reported a revival of the paperback.

Taking first position in the 2017 Travelodge Books Left Behind Index is the Handmaid’s Tale, a dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. It is set in a near-future New England, in a totalitarian state resembling a theonomy, which has overthrown the United States government. The novel focuses on the journey of the handmaid Offred.

The Couple Next Door, by Sharri Lapena takes second position. The thriller novel is based on Anne and Marco Conti who seems to have it all but one night when they are at a dinner party a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately focuses on their parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story. 

The third most popular book left behind in Travelodge hotels is the popular hilarious children’s book, Bad Dad by David Walliams. The riches to rags story tells how a father and son take on the villainous Mr Big.

Dan Brown’s mystery thriller novel, Origin takes fourth place in the Index. This is the fifth instalment in his Robert Langdon series, following Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol, and Inferno. 

The fifth most popular book left behind in Travelodge hotels is popular self-help book, The Secret by Rhona Byrne. The global sensation which has sold over 30 million copies is based how to make the law of attraction can improve your life.  

Detailed below are the top 20 books left behind in Travelodge hotels during the last 12 months

Other key findings revealed that after two decades, Pottermania still lives on as Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone make tenth position in the Travelodge Books Left Behind Index and the Harry Potter Colouring Books takes 17^th position.

UK political opinion on Brexit has been an area of curiosity for some of Travelodge’s 19 million customers with Tim Shipman’s All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain’s Political Class claiming 16^th position on the list.

For many business travellers, Donald Trump’s “The Art of the Deal has been a must read – taking 20^th position on the Travelodge Books Left Behind Index.     

Shakila Ahmad, Travelodge Spokesperson said: “Interestingly our 2017 Travelodge Books Left Behind Index has revealed that classic and popular books that have been turned into a popular TV series or a box office movie have instigated an appetite for Britons to delve back into paperbacks. Across our 550 UK Travelodge hotels, business and leisure customers report that a good book offers the ultimate escape whilst travelling.” 

During the last 12 months, over 70,000 books have been left behind in Travelodge’s 42,000 rooms across the country. Detailed below are the three main reasons to why customers leave their books behind are:

1.     They have finished reading the book and rather than carrying it back home they have recycled it and left it for someone else to read

2.     They have genuinely left the book behind because it was hidden in the bed covers or fallen out of bed 

3.     They got bored reading the book and decided to leave it behind in the hotel room rather than carrying it around with them   

All books that are left behind in a Travelodge hotel room, which are not claimed within three months, are donated to a local charity shop.