But these are tricky times for all hotel chains, not least Travelodge:
"In February 2012, DIC had to prepare a bailout package due to a significant debt of £478 million that was added to Travelodge's balance sheet following its purchase, and despite significant earnings since 2006, these could not cover the debt repayments and the company recorded a debt of £517m in 2011.[10] The company undertook a financial restructure during April 2012 with ownership passing to New York-based hedge funds Goldentree Asset Management and Avenue Capital Group, as well as Goldman Sachs.[11] On 17 August 2012 Travelodge UK confirmed[12] the financial restructuring would be through a company voluntary arrangement which would include;
- At least £75m of new money being injected into the Company
- £55m being invested into a major refurbishment programme across the estate covering over 11,000 rooms and 175 hotels. The refurbishment programme will commence in early 2013 and continue through to summer 2014
- Bank debt of £235m will be written off and £71m repaid, reducing total bank debt from £635m to £329m.
However, Travelodge also stated that it was no longer viable to operate 49 hotels (8% of the estate), for which the company would now seek new operators.