Travelodge sees hotels sell out ahead of Taylor Swift tour

The Taylor Swift effect? Travelodge sells out of hotel rooms for star’s sold-out Eras tour in Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cardiff amid jump in demand for big-name performers

• Budget hotel chain gets a boost from demand boom for big-name performances 
• Revenues across firm jump 22.4% to £478.7million in the six months to June 30

Budget chain Travelodge today revealed its hotels have already sold out near venues for next year’s highly anticipated Taylor Swift concerts across Britain.

The firm said its hotels in Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cardiff are already sold out, while various sites near Wembley are also fully booked ahead of the dates next summer.

It comes as the firm is being boosted a boom in demand for big-name performances – with this year’s sell-out concerts from Beyonce and Harry Styles helping it notch up a record set of half-year results, with earnings jumping by nearly 50 per cent.

The company said its hotels were sold out across most of London during Beyonce’s five performances at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for her Renaissance World Tour.

Travelodge, which has 595 hotels, added that Styles’s concerts in venues across the UK for his Love On Tour were also a big driver of sales nationwide, with revenues at the group jumping 22.4 per cent to £478.7million in the six months to June 30.

Taylor Swift performs during her Eras Tour at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 30

Harry Styles (left, at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh in May) and Beyonce (right, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London in May) have helped Travelodge notch up a record set of results

Travelodge said its accommodation revenues in recent weeks are on average about 50 per cent ahead of 2019 levels and around 8 per cent ahead of 2022 levels

Swift’s upcoming Eras Tour is already set to smash records, with fans clambering to snap up tickets for up to £600. The first UK date is Edinburgh on June 7 next year.

READ MORE Now savvy Britons ‘cash in’ on UK leg of Beyoncé’s world tour by renting out their own driveways and school parking spaces 

Travelodge, which bills itself as the UK’s second largest hotel brand based on number of hotels and rooms, said: ‘We have seen very strong demand from all corners of the UK for our hotels that are close to the venues where Taylor Swift is playing next year.

‘Locations such as Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cardiff are literally sold out. Our London hotels close to Wembley are literally sold out.

‘As tickets for the Eras Tour are like gold dust, Taylor Swift fans are certainly willing to travel miles across the UK to attend what is expected to be the highest grossing concert in history.’

Its interim results show underlying earnings leapt 48 per cent higher to £104.5million, buoyed by demand surrounding concerts and events bookings, with the group expecting full-year figures overall to be higher than 2022.

The Six Nations rugby matches, the Grand National and the London Marathon were also big drivers of sales, according to the group.

Revenue per available room – a key performance measure for hotel firms – surged 20.7 per cent to £54.92 over the half year.

Travelodge said it is seeing ‘good momentum’ in the second half of the year so far, with the industry benefiting from a strong bounce-back in demand as travel and events have been firmly back on the agenda following the pandemic.

Revenues across the group rose 22.4 per cent to £478.7 million in the six months to June 30

Travelodge’s interim results showed underlying earnings jumped 48 per cent to £104.5million

Jo Boydell, Travelodge chief executive, said: ‘Leisure guests used Travelodge as a base to enjoy friends and family get-togethers, and sports and music events including the Six Nations rugby, the Grand National, and Eurovision.

‘This is alongside business guests returning to trade fairs, and looking for affordable, and quality accommodation for their day-to-day business needs.

‘We are continuing to invest in our UK hotel portfolio, with a quarter of our room estate on track to be upgraded to our new design by the end of this year as part of our most significant transformation to date.

‘As we look ahead, we see significant opportunities for further growth and have identified more than 300 sites for new Travelodge hotels across the UK, as well as opportunities to grow our operation in Spain.’

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