Today the Rt. Hon. George Grubb, Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh was joined by Miss Edinburgh finalists to officially open Travelodges 10th hotel - Edinburgh Cameron Toll.
The Scottish beauties; Gemma Gardiner, Sami Reade and Claire Cunningham who will be fighting it out for the title of Miss Edinburgh at the Edinburgh Heat in a few weeks time; were invited by Travelodge to top up their beauty sleep quota by testing out the hotels new luxury king size beds (which have a royal seal of approval).
The £5.5 million budget hotel which is located at Craigmillar Park will be managed by Carolyn Bisland. Carolyn has been with Travelodge for over seven years and has managed the Dreghorn and Musselburgh Travelodge hotels. Carolyns 30- strong team were all hired via the Job Centre Plus Scheme, which helps the longterm unemployed back into the work place.
Carolyn Bisland, Hotel Manager at Cameron Toll Travelodge, said: " I am very proud to be given the opportunity to manage Travelodge's tenth hotel in Edinburgh, especially as we are now the city's biggest hotel brand. By offering rooms from £19 we can make it possible for more people to visit Edinburgh whether its for business or leisure. Our bookings data is showing that we are in for a very busy summer. Also with Edinburgh being voted one of the top tourist spots in Europe we will be attracting more International customers too".
Rt. Hon George Grubb, Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh said "Tourism and business are vitally important to our local economy and so I am delighted that Travelodge are opening their tenth hotel in Edinburgh. I am pleased to see that despite the current economic difficulties we face, businesses are still willing to invest within the great city of Edinburgh. In addition, it is providing much needed employment opportunities for the local area".
Travelodge has recently launched a £10million Sleep Manifesto which includes a raft of new staff and customer sleep initiatives fronted by the budget chain's first TV advertising for two decades. As part of this programme Travelodges 5,500 employees have all undergone a 'Sleep Tight' customer training programme, hundreds of mattresses and duvets have been replaced and 81,000 new and improved pillows have been purchased to offer customers the best night's sleep.
In the last 10 months Travelodge has opened four new hotels in the Scottish capital with a 96- bed hotel still to open in Waterloo Place this summer. Travelodge is the biggest hotel brand in Edinburgh and the new Cameron Toll hotel has now taken its total room stock in Scotland's capital to 840.
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Notes to Editors
Edinburgh Cameron Toll Travelodge is located in Craigmillar Park, Mid Lothian, EH16 5PD.
The official opening and photo call will take place on Friday 7th May at the hotel between 12.00pm and 1.00pm.
Edinburgh Cameron Toll Travelodge features the latest contemporary room design from the budget chain. To aide a good nights sleep, each room offers mood lighting complemented by a red, blue and white colour scheme throughout a luxury King size bed, en suite bathroom facilities, a flat screen TV with 18 free digital channels, free tea and coffee making facilities and Wi-fi. Visit www.travelodge.co.uk to book your £19 room.
About Travelodge
The first budget hotel brand to launch in the UK in 1985, Travelodge now operates over 390 hotels (28,000 rooms) - ten in Ireland, three in Spain and the rest in the UK. Travelodge plans to grow its estate to 70,000 rooms approximately 1,000 hotels by 2020.
Nine million people stayed with Travelodge last year and 87% of reservations are currently made online at travelodge.co.uk, where room rates start at £19 a night. The budget hotel chain employs 5,500 staff in the UK and Spain.