Travelodge on the market for £1.2bn
Travelodge owner GoldenTree, is seeking to cash in on a post-pandemic boom in holiday demand by selling the Travelodge hotels.
The budget chain, which is headed up by chief executive officer, Jo Boydell, is being put on the market for £1.2bn after nearly a decade under GoldenTree’s ownership.
The hedge fund is reported to be in talks with a range of investment banks over selling the hotel business.
Travelodge has benefitted from the strong recovery in hospitality and increasing trend towards “staycations” since the ending of Covid restrictions that had badly hit the hospitality sector.
The hotel chain, which has over 12,000 employees, 595 hotels and 45,781 rooms, posted record financial results in May. It said that revenues were up 25% on the previous year, with profits of £212.9m.
These were driven by strong levels of domestic leisure demand and a rapid recovery in ‘blue collar’ business demand, offsetting the more gradual recovery in ‘white collar’ corporate demand, it said.
Travelodge opened six new hotels in 2022, including one in Dublin and plans to open a further eight new hotels in 2023.