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In a move more common with supermarkets, Travelodge is aiming to 'steal' pound 29m of revenue from rival hotel chains by exposing their 'rip-off' practices in its latest ad campaign. By Joe Fernandez
Famed for its cheap rooms and simple designs, Travelodge promises "everyday low prices", marketing itself as the UK's most affordable budget hotel. It even managed to get one British couple to live permanently in one of its rooms rather than rent a flat because of its low rates.
With rooms from as little as pound 9 at various times of the year, Travelodge claims to be the fastest growing budget-hotel chain in Europe and aims to be the UK's leading budget hotel operator by the 2012 Olympics. It wants to "steal" up to 400,000 room nights during 2009 from its rivals.
Travelodge managing director Guy Parsons says: "We have spent the past three years shaping the business to be the outright winner on price. Our latest marketing strategy sees us aiming to steal pound 29m of our competitors' revenues by exposing rip-off hotel practices and highlighting the major price gap between us and the UK's major hotel brands."
Travelodge says it is aiming to expand quickly with plans to operate 70,000 rooms through an extra 1,000 hotels by 2020. It is running a pound 5m campaign with a series of ads naming and shaming its higher-priced rivals and highlighting practices such as "excluding VAT" prices and "per person, per night" rates. Supermarket-style, price-comparison tables compare towns and cities across the UK, laying bare Travelodge's...