The expansion follows the successful pilot of two Travelodges in Madrid and one in Barcelona. It will initially target major hubs including those two cities plus Valencia, before rolling out across other cities, suburban areas and airports.
Each hotel will have 80-100 rooms and will mirror Travelodge’s UK model, with room prices starting from €20 booked online. In the UK the chain offers two price bands: saver from £19 per room per night and flexible from £46.
The company said it had earmarked Spain for its first international expansion because of the country’s ‘burgeoning tourism market, favourable economic conditions and significant growth in internet usage’.
About 44% of Spanish consumers are frequent internet users, up 12.4 percentage points in the last year alone.
Grant Hearn, Travelodge chief executive, said: ‘While there is a very strong growth outlook in the UK for the next 10-15 years, we have demonstrated through our pilot that the Travelodge model works in Spain and the time is right to capitalise on this demand.
‘Spanish consumers’ appetite for budget products, coupled with a surge in internet usage, complement our low cost brand and internet sales model. Travelodge has an important role in international markets, like Spain, which are building high demand for the no frills approach.’
He added that Travelodge would be the first ‘genuine budget branded offer’ in Spain’s hotel sector, with its expansion following successful Spanish launches by other budget leaders, such as easyJet and Ikea.
There are currently just 100 budget hotels in Spain, but with Spanish travellers taking 143m domestic trips a year, market potential is ‘huge’, Hearn said.
‘We also know that 61% of our 1.5m UK online customer base is planning to take a trip to Spain within the next three years. We are confident that we can deliver strong occupancy and growth through a combination of these two markets.’
Travelodge will use the same leasehold model that it operates in the UK. It plans to have five additional Spanish hotels open and a further 15 in the pipeline within the next three years, and develop the remainder between 2010 and 2020.
To help drive the expansion, the company has appointed Horacio Alcala as development director for Spain. He joins from Metrovacesa, continental Europe’s biggest publicly listed property company, where he was director of hotel investment.
Alcala has also worked for GDO-MedGroup, focusing on the rollout of limited service hotels in Spain.
Travelodge, which is owned by private equity group Dubai International Capital, currently operates 322 hotels in the UK, Ireland and Spain, with a total of 20,000 rooms. Approximately 6.5m people stay with it each year.
Related news from e-tid.com:
Travelodge wants 10% market share (21/05/07)
Travelodge on target for 32k UK rooms by 2010 [FYs] (24/04/07)