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Another hotel plan for town

8:31am Tuesday 22nd July 2008

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A national hotel chain wants to open a new site in Weymouth with more than 100 bedrooms.

Travelodge is the third operator to focus on the resort in the last week after the B+B Collection opened a property on the Esplanade and plans were announced for a Hilton Hotel as part of redevelopment work for the Pavilion and ferry terminal.

The latest hotel proposed by Travelodge could create up to 25 new jobs in the town and provide an annual boost to the local economy of more than £1.3 million.

Travelodge spokesman Nick Dines said Weymouth had been chosen as part of the company's £150 million national expansion plans to open 55 hotels in seaside resorts to capitalise on increasing numbers of people holidaying at home.

Mr Dines added that Travelodge was prepared to pay a big cash bounty to whoever helped it find a site for their new hotel and he said: "We feel that Weymouth is one of the coastal towns where we can do business.

"We don't currently have a site identified in the town for our hotel, so we want people to help us out by telling us about everything we might be able to use from vacant hotels to farm buildings such as barns or land which has previously been earmarked for residential use but the plans have fallen through or are no longer viable.

"If anyone does identify land we can use and we build our hotel there then they could be entitled to a bounty cash payment from us from £500 per bedroom built up to a maximum for the entire project of £150,000."

He said this would not apply if the caller owned the land as the company would have to negotiate a lease with them.

"Travelodge does not own any of its hotel sites. We only lease, so what we are looking to do in Weymouth would be to have a 25-year fixed period lease with rents renegotiated every five years to take inflation into account."

He added that a Travelodge would provide a boost for the Weymouth area with research showing that the average visitor spent £254 in the local economy.

He said Travelodge was building its no frills' new hotels, including one in Bournemouth, because soaring fuel costs and a weaker pound meant more people holidaying in the UK.

A Weymouth and Portland leisure and tourism spokesman said: "This company's interest in Weymouth is in line with the increasing amount of potential investment being channelled into the resort and the growing need to accommodate a variety of visitors all year round."

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Your Say YourDorset Echo

Albo, Wyke Regis says...
9:35am Tue 22 Jul 08

I nominate the current council office site, and claim my "big cash bounty".

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Ask Archie, Weymouth says...
9:44am Tue 22 Jul 08

Little Francis and Markham (Curtis fields) would be a great site with fantastic views of the bay and surrounding country side.

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mr.d, weymouth says...
11:29am Tue 22 Jul 08

alexandra gardens

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genghis, portland says...
11:57am Tue 22 Jul 08

The NIMBY's won't be happy about this. A Travelodge in 18th Century Georgian Weymouth? Over their dead bodies!

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Jimbo, Weymouth says...
12:14pm Tue 22 Jul 08

I second the borough council offices, plenty of room there, even more so when the fire station relocates.

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Voice Of Reason, Weymouth says...
12:20pm Tue 22 Jul 08

Premier Inn are in Weymouth with a very similar offer, so Travelodge should be welcomed. At least with a Travelodge you know what you are getting before you arrive- some of the dives that pretend to be guest houses in the town are awful. I honestly don't know how some of them actually make any money. Still, the majority are full and they only open for 7/8 months of the year (Travelodge are open all year round, not when it suits them). When national companies want to open an outlet in Weymouth, this has to be seen as a positive thing. No doubt the blue or red on their sign will not be in keeping with the area, and Travelodge will get fed up and find another town.

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weymouthfox, Weymouth says...
12:26pm Tue 22 Jul 08

So many hotels planned for Weymouth & Portland and other than the Olympic weeks, is there that much business? A pal of my dads runs asmall hotel on the seafront and says that other than July and August, theres not much business the rest of the year.

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weymouthfox, Weymouth says...
12:26pm Tue 22 Jul 08

So many hotels planned for Weymouth & Portland and other than the Olympic weeks, is there that much business? A pal of my dads runs asmall hotel on the seafront and says that other than July and August, theres not much business the rest of the year.

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techie, Weymouth says...
12:46pm Tue 22 Jul 08

You'd better tell Travelodge to throw their business model out of the window then and talk to this pal of your dad's.

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John Holmes, Weymouth says...
2:45pm Tue 22 Jul 08

techie wrote:
You'd better tell Travelodge to throw their business model out of the window then and talk to this pal of your dad's.
Superb response dear fellow! :-)

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John Holmes, Weymouth says...
2:49pm Tue 22 Jul 08

It just goes to show the growing confidence in Weymouth. It is a pity some of the locals do not share this confidence or positive outlook on life.

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Albo, Wyke Regis says...
3:28pm Tue 22 Jul 08

John Holmes wrote:
It just goes to show the growing confidence in Weymouth. It is a pity some of the locals do not share this confidence or positive outlook on life.
They are, of course, welcome to go live elsewhere, then come back and stay in one of our wonderful new hotels every now and then.

It's a win-win!

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Wey-man, Town Centre says...
4:41pm Tue 22 Jul 08

What most people fail to realise when they criticize the new hotels, flats, marinas, and etcetera is that although the people staying in the hotels or living in there holiday apartments may not directly help the local economy. However they do help indirectly, all these hotels need staff, the people that have a luxury holiday apartment don’t do DIY they pay people to clean, and maintain. This town needs to look at the bigger picture for once .

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sammy, weymouth says...
5:00pm Tue 22 Jul 08

Love the idea of a Travel Lodge and think the council offices are a prime site together with the magistrates court and job centre - in fact anything to replace the job centre would be good.

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DingDonG, Wilds of Wiltshire says...
5:13pm Tue 22 Jul 08

Three suggestions :-)
(1) With the bar already built, (see "Camouflaged bar" at former paddock
9:51am today ) the hotel should be at Puddledock Lane.
(2) Nothe Fort
(3) As competition is the lubricant of a healthy economy, extend the Stone Pier, build the hotel 12 stories high and look down on the Hilton. Throw in a 400 berth marina, theatre and circus for good measure !

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Wykeite, Weymouth says...
6:30pm Tue 22 Jul 08

sammy wrote:
Love the idea of a Travel Lodge and think the council offices are a prime site together with the magistrates court and job centre - in fact anything to replace the job centre would be good.
....and the lazy bums that frequent the job centre, also the lazy bums in the council offices thinking about it.

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dan, Dorchester says...
6:58pm Tue 22 Jul 08

Some comments above fail to recognise that for major and national events to be attracted to a resort there needs to be 'Flagship' hotel accomodation. In simple terms any organisation planning such events looks first at the facilities available (Weymouth scores well - 2012!) and then at the support services (Hotels, transport, restaurants etc). So the better the hotel availability the more Weymouth will meet the criteria. Frankly I'm surprised that the OLYMPIC decision went Weymouth's way but I read elsewhere of plans to have 'floating hotels' in the form of Cruise Ships in the bay - presumably because there are no major hotels in Weymouth.

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pajak, Bristol says...
9:47pm Tue 22 Jul 08

Not suprised that hotels are planning to exploit the regeneration around Weymouth leading up to the 2012 Olympics. There will be millions of extra visitors needing accomodation and hotels will be able to cash in with premium prices.Remember that , as in Sydney 2000,private householders can recieve a cash windfall by letting private accomodation during 2012 and there are sites to facilitate this at www.sporteventsrentm
yhouse.com or www.londonrentmyhous
e.com. Don't miss out!!!

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spangler, says...
11:21pm Tue 22 Jul 08

pajak wrote:
Not suprised that hotels are planning to exploit the regeneration around Weymouth leading up to the 2012 Olympics. There will be millions of extra visitors needing accomodation and hotels will be able to cash in with premium prices.Remember that , as in Sydney 2000,private householders can recieve a cash windfall by letting private accomodation during 2012 and there are sites to facilitate this at www.sporteventsrentm
yhouse.com or www.londonrentmyhous
e.com. Don't miss out!!!
pajak,
You've posted these links and a similar message on these comment pages before.
You wouldn't happen to have a vested interest in either of the companies to which these websites link would you?
What's your %?

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Robinson, says...
11:32pm Tue 22 Jul 08

with research showing that the average visitor spent £254 in the local economy.

Well that's encouraging. I was under the misguided impression that most vistors drove around until they found free parking in the side streets away from the town centre and walked to their destination with family picnic lunch in a back-pack.
The town being lucky to get a couple of ice cream sales or a bag of chips out of them.

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pajak, Bristol says...
8:47pm Wed 23 Jul 08

Hello Spangler, nice of you to show an interest.No vested interest in the sites but we should make sure that the tax paying public, who will underwrite the cost of the Olympics, know that there is a way that they can make some money even though they are not among the priveleged few who can benefit from association with the 2012 Games.I expect the sailing fraternity will pay well to avoid cramped hotels at premium prices.

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dunketh, Portland says...
11:24am Thu 24 Jul 08

I was under the misguided impression that most vistors drove around until they found free parking in the side streets away from the town centre and walked to their destination with family picnic lunch in a back-pack.
The town being lucky to get a couple of ice cream sales or a bag of chips out of them.

Dont judge them by our standards.
Dont forget visitors are likely to have money, whereas us poor locals dont, thanks to our complete lack of industry (besides tourism) and lower than average pay amounts.
I say get the city folk in, empty their wallets and send them home again in their executive 4x4s.

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Comments are closed on this article.

A Travelodge hotel on the seafront in Eastbourne, East Sussex now the company is looking for Weymouth sites A Travelodge hotel on the seafront in Eastbourne, East Sussex now the company is looking for Weymouth sites

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