British economy hotel firm Travelodge posted a 4.2% year-on-year increase in revenue to £206.8 million ($277.6 million) during the first quarter.
The company said in its first-quarter earnings report that its "solid start" to the year was driven by outperformance against its competitive segment, positive contributions from new and maturing hotels, its food-and-beverage business and continued strong performance from its Spanish properties.
As of the end of the first quarter, the company had 631 hotels under its Travelodge brand and approximately 49,000 rooms in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain.
Travelodge is the second-largest hotel firm by hotel count in the U.K. after Whitbread, which owns the Premier Inn and Hub by Premier Inn brands.
Travelodge showed a year-over-year decrease in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, dropping to -£13.6 million from -£8.4 million in 2025.
Jo Boydell, the firm’s CEO, said in the report the group had “delivered a solid performance in [the quarter], traditionally our quietest quarter, outperforming the competitive segment as our strategic investments delivered results despite challenging market conditions. We saw year-on-year revenue growth with the strongest performance driven by leisure demand.”
She added that Travelodge's booked revenue levels for the second quarter are ahead of where they were in the same period of last year.
In Spain, Travelodge saw an approximate 27% increase in revenue and an EBITDA increase to £1.7 million from £900,000 the year prior.
Travelodge has increased its Spanish portfolio from five hotels to 13 since 2023.
Boydell said cost efficiencies helped offset revenue impacted by inflationary pressures, which she added included increases in the National Living Wage, employers’ national insurance contributions and significant increases in business rates, which started in April.
Travelodge projects the latest business-rates revaluation will increase costs from approximately £38 million in 2025 to approximately £50 million in 2026.
“We are working hard to mitigate these pressures," she said. "Looking ahead, we are monitoring the potential impact from economic and wider geopolitical uncertainty on consumer and business confidence, and further cost inflation from the Employment Rights Act and tourism levies."
However, Travelodge continues to see opportunities and is well-positioned for the medium-term, she added.
Boydell also commented on a 2022 incident at one of Travelodge's Maidenhead hotels, which resulted in the incarceration of a man found guilty of sexually assaulting a fellow guest. The perpetrator obtained a key to the victim’s room from staff after lying about his relationship with the victim, the BBC reports.
In the earnings news release, Travelodge apologized for the manner in which the episode was handled, adding the company has “recently made changes to strengthen our room-access security policies and incident-escalation procedures. These changes have been rolled out to all of our hotels, supported by enhanced training for our 12,000 customer-facing colleagues.”
Travelodge has also commissioned an independent review to be led by barrister Paul Greaney, the findings of which will be released in the summer.