Travelodge, Scotland’s first branded budget hotel chain celebrates its 35th milestone birthday by opening its first hotel in Elgin – which is also the company’s most northern point hotel.
Elgin Travelodge is the company’s 592nd hotel and its 47th property in Scotland. It represents a multimillion investment for third party investors and has created 20 new jobs within the community.
The purpose built hotel is located at Elgin Gateway Business Park, making it ideal for exploring the county of Moray and the world famous whiskey region of Spreyside, home to some of Scotland’s most famous exports.
Elgin Travelodge features 61-rooms which includes SuperRooms, the company’s premium economy room concept. This new class of room is the first of its kind in the UK budget hotel market, and is designed around the ‘premium economy’ concept familiar to airline users. It dials up the comfort factor for business and leisure customers who want the extra choice of a more premium room (See notes to editors for further information on SuperRooms.)
The prestigious Travelodge SuperRoom product is only available in four Travelodge hotels across Scotland which includes two hotels in Edinburgh, one hotel in Glasgow and now Elgin.
The hotel also offers family, double and accessible rooms. Rates for a standard room start from £29 and can be booked at www.travelodge.co.uk.
The hotel also features an on-site restaurant, called the Bar-Café which offers a breakfast, dinner and bar service menu and there is complementary on-site car parking too.
Elgin Travelodge also features the company’s new multimillion pound Covid-19 safety and social distance programme, called TravelodgeProtect+.
TravelodgeProtect+ has been developed by a dedicated cross-functional hygiene strategy team, in line with government guidance and will become the way Travelodge operates going forward. The programme includes:
Cleaning & Hygiene
· Comprehensive cleaning throughout its hotels using an antiviral disinfectant – effective against Coronavirus
· Additional post clean room checks with digital tracking in place to ensure consistently high standards
· Increased cleaning frequency in high touchpoints in public areas and rooms
· All linen and towels thermally disinfected
· Comprehensive training of every hotel team member on cleaning, hygiene and social distancing
· Installation of customer hand sanitizer stations in key locations in the hotel
Social Distancing
· Protective reception screens
· Signage to mark social distance points throughout the hotel including check-in markings
· Monitoring the number of customers in a designated area such as the reception area and lifts
· PPE provided for all hotel team members
· To minimise contact, housekeeping team members will not enter customer’s rooms during their stay
· Contactless payment
· Contactless check-out
Elgin Travelodge is being managed by Ann Howie who joined the company 16 years ago as a part time team member in the housekeeping team whilst raising her family and then progressed to a receptionist role and then supervisor.
Ann took up her first hotel management role at Dundee Kingsway in 2008. She has managed several more hotels across Scotland since, including Dundee Strathmore, Dunfermline and Edinburgh. This autumn Anne was given to the keys to a brand new hotel (Elgin Travelodge) to manage – which is every hotel manager’s dream
Ann is one of thousands of Travelodge working parent’s employees who have successfully climbed the career ladder from an entry level position into management whilst raising their family.
Ann Howie, Hotel Manager, Elgin Travelodge, said: “I am honoured to be managing Elgin Travelodge which is not only the town’s first Travelodge hotel but it is also our most northern point hotel within the estate. Opening a new hotel is very stressful at any time but during a pandemic it goes up a good ten notches. However I am delighted to have built a fantastic team who are as passionate as me about delivering great customer service and together we have overcome the hurdles. Our multi-million Covid-19 safety programme, TravelodgeProtect+ which is designed to keep our customers and teams safe sits at the heart of our business and has been very well received by our customers.”
“As the nation’s spare room provider, we are getting geared up for a busy festive season with local resident’s family and friends staying with us whilst they visit their loved ones. This is great news for the local economy as research shows our customers will spend on average double their room rate with local businesses which equates to an annual multi-million spend.”
“I am also super excited to develop my team (which includes lots of working parents), and give them the same opportunities that I was given of successfully climbing the career ladder and become hotel managers of the future.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Travelodge Press Office
01844 358 703
pressoffice@travelodge.co.uk