Travelodge splits sales and marketing chief roles

Travelodge, the UK budget hotel chain, has restructured its sales and marketing department in an effort to put more emphasis on its core brand.

Sales and marketing director Peter Halsey becomes marketing director, with specific responsibility for building the brand. The sales director role is being taken by Stuart Honey, who joins Travelodge from a senior international role at Choice Hotels.

Halsey says the move has been planned over the past 18 months, since Travelodge was split from the Forte Hotel Group by its owner, the food service giant Compass Group, when Forte was sold to Nomura. Halsey says: “Many of the functions we had in place were left over from when we were part of a much bigger group.”

Travelodge has 12,000 beds in more than 220 hotels across the UK. Last year it spent &£1m, with media buying by Feather Brooksbank and creative work in house and through small specialist agencies. Halsey says there are plans to increase the budget and to spend more on branding campaigns in the press and on radio, rather than just tactical work. He is also not ruling out a return to TV.

Halsey is to look at strategic expansion possibilities for the hotel chain, as well as at brand management and advertising. A customer research programme is being conducted by Taylor Nelson.