Travelodge to open a new hotel in Lowestoft

Travelodge wants to open a new hotel in Lowestoft as part of its £165 million seaside and coastal town expansion programme.

Travelodge, the UK’s first budget hotel brand celebrates 20 years of trading at UK seaside resorts this summer. To mark this milestone anniversary the company announces today that it wants to expand in a further 26 seaside and coastal town locations which includes Lowestoft as a target location.

This will be Travelodge’s second hotel in Lowestoft and would represent an investment of £5 million for third party investors and would create 25 new jobs within the community.

Travelodge’s Local Authorities development programme uses bespoke agreements with unique funding structures, all of which have enabled Local Authorities to utilise their existing assets, create jobs, generate income, and help to regenerate land in strategically important locations.

Travelodge hotels in this programme are built on surplus local authority land, with the funding provided either through the Local Authorities internal resource or via low-cost funding from the Public Works Loan Board or third party resources.

Upon completion of the hotel development, local authorities have the choice of either retaining ownership of the hotel and receiving an annual rent into the Council’s revenue budget or selling the hotel with Travelodge as its operator.

Tony O’ Brien, Travelodge UK Development Director said: “We are seeing the rebirth of British seaside resorts and coastal towns as a result of Britons changing holiday habits. We are becoming a strong Staycation nation that likes to take lots of short breaks throughout the year rather than a traditional two week block holiday and Suffolk is benefitting from the this trend.”

“Suffolk has developed a “winning formula” for tourism as it has seen its biggest boom for a decade, with the visitor economy reaching the £2 billion mark. The county’s tourism industry has great potential for further growth and we want to be a part of this.  Therefore we are looking for another hotel site in the idyllic seaside town, Lowestoft, one of Suffolk’s top holiday resorts. It will also support the local economy as our research shows on average our customers spend double their room rate with local businesses which annually results in a multi-million boost for the local economy.”

The list below details the 26 seaside resort and coastal towns where Travelodge is looking to open a hotel:

1. Aberystwyth
2. Bognor Regis
3. Bournemouth
4. Bude
5. Canterbury / Whistable
6. Deal / Sandwich
7. Eastbourne
8. Falmouth
9. Folkestone
10. Guernsey
11. Hove
12. Jersey
13. Lerwick
14. Looe / Fowey
15. Lowestoft
16. Newquay
17. Oban
18. Penarth
19. Penzance
20. Pwllheli
21. Shoreham-by-Sea
22. St Ives
23. Tenby
24. Truro
25. Western Super Mare
26. Weymouth

This year, is set to be the strongest year for holidaying at home, according to the Travelodge 2019 Holiday Index. This summer, 69% of us are taking their annual summer holiday in the UK – this is an increase of 12% (57%) from 2018 with the average holiday being a week. Collectively Britons will boost the UK economy by £40 billion this year by holidaying on British shores this summer.

Research also shows it’s the death of the traditional two week holiday as 85% of Britons are splitting the traditional two week annual holiday into a seven day block supported with three short breaks throughout the year. A traditional jaunt to the seaside remains a firm favourite with 45% of Britons flocking to the coast this summer.

For more information please visit the Travelodge website.