Travelodge plans to become 'biggest hotel brand in London by 2012 Olympics'

It has bought properties across five boroughs - in Covent Garden’s 1 Drury Lane, Ealing, Stratford, Lyon Road and Sheridan Road in Harrow and Bromley.

The newly acquired properties will provide a total of 828 rooms in addition to the 4,862 it already runs across 32 London hotels – extending its 1,000 room lead over its rivals.

With a further seven hotels currently being constructed and the six exchanges, the budget hotel company will operate 45 hotels, equating to 6,482 rooms in the capital by the summer of 2012.

Grant Hearn, chief executive officer at Travelodge, said: ‘We have long stated our aim of being the lead brand in London by the time of the games and we are pleased that this will now be achieved. The Olympics is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the tourism industry and we intend to take it with both hands.’

The six new London hotels, a mixture of office developments and new builds, will create over 200 jobs directly and support 500 more during the construction.

It will be recruiting from the unemployed through its partnership with Job Centre plus.

The purchase of the new properties follows Travelodge’s £70m exchange of 12 properties outside of the capital earlier this month.

Last month, it also unveiled plans to launch a £100m Tamesis property fund which is being set up to finance the quick acquisition of ‘going concern’ hotels.