British chain Travelodge arrives on the Costa del Sol with first hotel near Malaga Airport

Pilar Martínez

Malaga

Wednesday, 5 June 2024, 09:43 | Updated 10:05h.

British chain Travelodge, with more than 600 hotels in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain, is on its way to Malaga. It comes after the purchase from Louvre Hotels Group of five hotels in Spain, including the former Campanile, on the city's Avenida Velázquez, which since 31 May has been renamed Travelodge Malaga Aeropuerto.

It is a three-star hotel located just under three kilometres from the Costa del Sol airport, with 114 rooms, its own car park, two meeting rooms and a restaurant. The British chain highlights the location as it is also a ten-minute drive from the city centre, the Palacio de Congresos exhibition and conference centre and the beach, and points out that "the addition of these hotels to the Travelodge portfolio strengthens the existing portfolio of six hotels in Spain and is the result of the magnificent performance of these hotels". "It offers guests more locations, ensuring good quality accommodation and better value for money, accessible to both leisure and business travellers in the country," the company added.

At the end of last year, the group announced it had set its sights on Malaga, where it was looking for hotels to start developing its business in what would be its first foray into the destination. Now, Steve Bennett, Travelodge's chief of property and development officer said: "We are delighted to expand our offering in Spain with the opening of these new hotels, including our first hotels in Alicante, Murcia and Malaga, as well as strengthening our existing portfolio in Madrid and Barcelona".

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Bennett said each location is carefully selected to meet the needs of the modern business and leisure tourist. "We look forward to welcoming our guests to these fantastic new additions to our growing portfolio of hotels," he said, adding "the Spanish hotel market is growing at a rapid pace and we want to take this opportunity to bring the Travelodge brand to new locations across Spain. There are already some great opportunities in the pipeline for our business, with the potential to offer great value for money accommodation in many more locations across the country".

The chain, which has more than 46,000 rooms in the UK, Ireland and Spain and 22 million guests a year, is in the process of expanding into the Spanish market following the findings of extensive research, including a study the group commissioned from Christie & Co, which showed Spain is one of the most visited countries in the world and also one of the fastest growing, and that there is significant opportunity for value-for-money branded hotels in the mid-market and mid-budget range.

This growing range favourably targets the modern tourist who is looking for more affordable accommodation options. In this new package of five openings in Spain, the British chain is opening in Alicante Puerto; Barcelona del Vallès; Madrid Alcalá de Henares; Murcia and Malaga, with a total of 635 rooms.