Travelodge to open 22 new hotels

Travelodge is to open 22 new hotels before Christmas, creating 450 jobs.

The budget hotel chain said it was benefiting from more people seeking lower cost accommodation because of the growing signs of economic downturn.

Travelodge said it was spending ?125m on the 22 new hotels as part of its plans to increase its estate to 1,000 hotels by 2020.

Owned by Dubai International Capital, Travelodge currently has 339 hotels in the UK and 11 overseas.

'Credit crunch'

Locations for the new hotels include Hereford, Devizes, Stevenage, Barking, Wolverhampton, Middlesbrough, Torquay, Edinburgh and Cardiff.

"The credit crunch is forcing people to review their spending habits and we are seeing more customers shift to budget hotel accommodation," said Travelodge managing director Paul Harvey.

"We continue to actively seek and pursue new development and growth opportunities as we are looking to open a further 4,000 new rooms in 2009."

Travelodge currently has about 5,000 employees, and 6.5 million people spent a night at one of its hotels last year.

Source: BBC News