Foreword

Rt Hon Justine Greening, Founder of the Purpose Goals and Former Secretary of State for Education

Since it launched its first hotel in the UK nearly 40 years ago, Travelodge has grown to become the UK’s largest independent budget hotel group.

This impressive growth has touched thousands of lives as people from all walks of life have joined the company to work in roles from housekeeping to front of house to management.

While the company recognises that parts of its workforce can be transient – they recruit around 8,000 people a year – there is much pride in the steps taken to retain and promote its colleagues. The accessible, regularly updated, ongoing training and tailored hours enable colleagues to fulfil their potential and quickly move through the roles of the organisation, whatever their outside commitments.

Of particular note is the ‘Aspire’ development programme which is open to all colleagues and provides qualifications and practical experience. It can, in part, account for the fact that circa 75 per cent of supervisors and hotel management positions are internally promoted.

Travelodge supports diversity and inclusion across the company and provides flexibility in order to attract both students and working parents to roles. Young people are given the national living wage and not penalised for their age. Also commendable is the company’s aim to have a 50/50 gender split at senior level and 10 per cent ethnic minority representation by the end of 2025.

Meanwhile, colleague wellbeing is highly important to Travelodge, and the company provides numerous programmes to support good mental and physical health. Its partnership with the British Heart Foundation has resulted in a fantastic open access CPR training course, which could go on to save lives inside or outside the hotels.

Despite recognising the importance of social mobility, Travelodge is well aware that there are several areas in which it can continue to grow and strengthen. As with many organisations, one of its biggest challenges is around its workforce and how it attracts and retains talent in a difficult employment environment.

This independent impact report highlights areas of strength, as well as areas where more could be done to strengthen Travelodge’s social impact. The report maps some of Travelodge’s activities against the Purpose Goals - a common framework with which organisations can measure their progress.

The three which Travelodge consider most relevant to them are Goal 5: Open recruitment, Goal 6: Fair career progression and Goal 8: Good health and wellbeing.

Within each are extensive examples of the company’s successes in achieving movement towards providing a fair, accessible, happy and healthy working environment.

Foreword by Hannah Thomson Chief People Officer, Travelodge

At Travelodge, our purpose is to ‘deliver affordable travel for everyone’, offering our customers the right balance of location, price and quality. Our strategy is to make a Better Travelodge for our key stakeholders which includes customers and colleagues.

Our colleagues are at the heart of our business and we are committed to providing an inclusive workplace, providing decent work, with opportunities to learn more and earn more, and where everyone can be their true self and belong. We simplify this as “Learn more, Earn more, Belong”.

We’re incredibly proud of our Aspire development programme which we’ve expanded in the last 12 months. Aspire supports our hotel and maintenance teams to progress from entry level roles right through to District Manager level. Additionally for our head office colleagues, we introduced “Limitless” this year, a development programme aimed at middle managers with a strong focus on good health & wellbeing being fundamental to driving team performance.

With nearly 600 hotels across the UK, Spain and Ireland, Travelodge is well placed to support the levelling up agenda across all regions of the UK. The roles we offer are available to all, irrespective of background or educational attainment, and we live and breathe the commitment that everyone can be their true self and belong. So you really can “get in and get on”.

And we know there’s more we can do. So it’s exciting to embark on this journey with the Purpose Coalition to understand and celebrate all the great things we’re currently doing, but more importantly, to start understanding where we can do more to support the country’s levelling up agenda and improve our social impact across the UK.

The recommended actions in this report give us the opportunity to continue to improve what we do to make a Better Travelodge for our customers and colleagues, in turn, positively impacting the communities within which we operate.