Travelodge Opens £3 Million Hotel

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. June 14, 2010

June 11, 2010 - Today the leader of the Council, Councillor Simon Tagg and the Mayor of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Councillor Ann Heames were joined by the town's up coming artists from Wolstanton High School to officially open Travelodge's first hotel in Newcastle-under-Lyme town centre.

The £3 million, 82-room budget hotel which is located at: Lower Street, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stafford, ST5 2RN has created 20 new jobs within the community. All positions have been fulfilled via the Job Centre Plus Scheme - which helps the long tem unemployed back into the work place. The hotel will be managed by Patrick Gossage who has worked for Travelodge for two years.
To mark the opening of Newcastle-under-Lyme first Travelodge, the hotel chain commissioned 15 budding artists from Wolstaton High School to design and create artwork to highlight the town's famous landmarks. The only criteria for the project was - students had to design their artwork using felt which Newcastle-under-Lyme is famous for creating. The children made their own felt under the guidance of art teacher, Julie Thatcher and feltist, Katy Evett, using the traditional felt making process.

At the hotel's official opening, the Mayor of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Councillor Ann Heames and Patrick Gossage, Newcastle-under-Lyme Central Travelodge Hotel Manager judged the 15 entries and selected their top five wining designs. The overall winning artist was fifteen year old Beth Edgeley who has won a weekend break for her and her family at any one of the 384 Travelodge hotels across the UK. All five winning entries are being showcased in the hotel's reception area for all guests to view. Patrick Gossage Hotel Manager at Newcastle-under-Lyme Central Travelodge, said: “I am very proud to be given the opportunity to manage Travelodge's first hotel in Newcastle-under-Lyme. There has been a desperate need for branded budget accommodation in the town centre for a while. With our £19 room rates business and leisure customers will be able to get a good night's sleep at an affordable price. Plus the hotel opening will also boost the local economy by up to £1m which is great news for all.”

The Mayor of Newcastle, Councillor Ann Heames said: “Tourism and business are vitally important to our local economy and so I am delighted that Travelodge is opening its first hotel here in Newcastle. I am pleased to see that despite the current economic difficulties we face, businesses are still willing to invest within our great town. I whole-heartedly welcome Travelodge to the town centre and thank them for providing these much needed career opportunities”.

“I would also like to congratulate all of the students that took part in the art competition from Wolstanton High - the quality and integrity of their work is outstanding. If I could have chosen 15 winners I most certainly would have”.

Julie Fletcher, Head of Art at Wolstanton High School said: “Each pupil worked incredibly hard on this project and the results clearly speak for themselves. I'm delighted that we could take part in this initiative - it made learning about the history of our town and the traditional methods of making felt very enjoyable for the pupils. This is the first time the pupils ever worked with felt or even on a sewing machine - I'm totally inspired by the results they have produced.”

Newcastle-under-Lyme Travelodge features the latest contemporary room design from the budget chain. To aide a good nights sleep, each room offers a luxury king size bed, with mood lighting. The room also has en-suite facilities, a flat screen TV with 18 free digital channels, Wifi and free tea / coffee making facilities.

Travelodge has recently launched a £10million Sleep Manifesto which includes a raft of new staff and customer sleep initiatives fronted by the budget chain's first TV advertising for two decades. As part of this programme Travelodge's 5,500 employees have all undergone a 'Sleep Tight' customer training programme, hundreds of mattresses and duvets have been replaced and 81,000 new and improved pillows have been purchased to offer customers the best night's sleep.