Travelodge revamps website as part of £223m brand investment

Customers have been involved in a revamp of the Travelodge website which claims more than 1.2 million visits a week.

Customers have been involved in a revamp of the Travelodge website which claims more than 1.2 million visits a week.

The online improvements are part of a £223 million brand investment this year.

Feedback from guests focused on having a fast, easy booking journey with great visual content, according to sales and marketing director Catriona Kempston.

Improved functionality makes the site easier to read, navigate and use, enabling customers to find and book what they need quickly, whether it be online or via the company’s mobile site.

The budget chain has introduced a simplified and faster booking journey, through a new site layout and improved display of information, along with address look-up from postcode and clearer flagging of any errors made during the process.

The site claims to attract as many as 1,500 bookings an hour at peak times.

Maps have been introduced to allow hotels, transport links and nearby attractions and points of interest to be clearly identified.

Improved images of all 516 hotel exteriors and interiors, including different room options, has been included.

There is less information on the homepage, making search functionality more prominent.

The site also features an enhanced corporate section for business travellers, including a dashboard which allows corporate users to re-book frequently-used hotels and add a corporate rate to their search results.

The work has taken six months to complete and has been carried out by Travelodge’s in-house IT team, with support from specialist digital customer engagement agency Underwired.

Kempston said: “As part of our £223 million brand investment to grow the business, strengthen our product offering and make Travelodge the best value hotel chain in the UK, we have worked with our customers to redesign our shop window, the Travelodge website.

“Around 85% of customers book their room at travelodge.co.uk, so a key part of our brand re-launch was to perform an upgrade of our website and to involve customers in the process.”