Budget hotel group Travelodge has acquired the leases on three former Purple hotels in a £14m deal.
The budget hotel operator is continuing its recession busting expansion which has seen it partnering with low-cost supermarket Aldi on hotel sites and snapping up going concern businesses.
Travelodge struck up the deal with BDO Stoy Hayward, the administrators of the Real Hotel Company, which collapsed into administration in January. Shay Bannon, business restructuring partner at BDO Stoy Hayward said: “We are pleased to confirm the sales of the hotels and are still working to actively market the remaining hotels in the group for sale with a view to achieving a successful outcome.”
The leases on the three properties located at Sheffield Meadowhall, Derby and Tewkesbury are being transferred to the Travelodge brand imminently and the hotels will continue to trade with all 72 employees moving to the budget chain.
The acquisition adds 258 rooms to its 26,000 UK room stock and the conversion of these existing hotels brings the budget chain’s 2009 openings to date to seven, with 17 going concern hotels having been converted to the Travelodge brand in just 17 months.
Paul Harvey Travelodge’s managing director of international and development said: “All three of these properties are great additions to the Travelodge brand and represent over 10 per cent of our 2009 room target. Each location will draw on both the business and leisure markets and we are confident of an early and strong uptake.
"The current economic climate lends itself to very competitive property prices and we are currently adding one going concern hotel to our brand every month.
“We expect this trend to continue and even grow with more struggling hotel companies selling assets to the Travelodge brand. Beyond hotels we are also looking to convert housing projects, offices, factories and even railway stations to maintain our rapid growth programme.”
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