E Commerce

The total number of rooms sold was up 13% to 7.2m and 13m customers stayed with Travelodge - up 12% from 2009. Total sales grew by 13%, with London sales up 16% while those in the provinces rose 12%, it said in a statement today. Travelodge opened 70 hotels last year and has a 'positive outlook for 2011', with 36 properties currently being built.

Travelodge has appointed Charlie Herbert as e-commerce director.

In this newly created role, he will oversee the company's new e-commerce function, managing a team of 30 people.

Travelodge is an e-commerce business. 90% of room bookings are through Travelodge.co.uk

This means that we can keep our prices low. In fact, our lowest prices are always available on-line. Last year we sold c7 million rooms, 40% of these were £29 or below. One million rooms were £19 or below

We constantly check the rates of every hotel in the UK, up to three times a day, to ensure that our prices are the most competitive within the marketplace.

As a result www.travelodge.co.uk is the UK's most visited hotel website.

Travelodge has launched a £1m e-commerce drive enabling customers to buy goods while booking rooms.

Web customers will be able to personalise their own Travelodge homepage and perform actions such as reserve cots or pre-pay for breakfast. Customers will also be able to buy tickets for events and attractions as the programme develops.

The technology will allow online retailers to partner with the hotel chain to sell products for customers during their stay.

Travelodge's web offer will be driven by a price strategy similar to the budget airline model, with the best rates available online and in advance.