473 HOTELS UNITE TO RAISE £10,000 FOR KIDSOUT
ON 8TH JUNE 2011
Travelodge, is going red on Wednesday 8th June 2011 in a bid to raise £10,000 for one of it’s nominated charities – KidsOut. For the first time ever, the budget hotel chain is uniting all of its 6,000 staff across it 473 hotels and head office in a dedicated fundraising day. The event titled Red Day* will involve all staff members wearing red clothing to work plus 120 fund raising activities will take place in Travelodge hotels nationwide. (*The colour red was chosen to support the charity’s main brand colour).
Some of the fundraising activities taking place on the day include:
A half a marathon fun run bed push around Sunderland.
Cycling receptionists – hotels in Merseyside will be cycling behind the reception desks throughout the day whilst checking in customers and managing the reception desk.
Leamington Spa Travelodge is hosting Royal tours of the rooms where Queen Victoria stayed when visiting the hotel aged 11 back in 1830
18 hotels in the Birmingham area are getting together and hosting Birmingham’s cheapest car wash service
Travelodge’s head office staff based in Thame are hosting a red themed fete for staff and the local community
Guy Parson’s Travelodge’s CEO said: "As the fastest growing budget hotel brand in the UK, I believe we have a duty to give something back to society, therefore, last summer I asked my team of 6,000 staff members to nominate two charities they would like to support during the next two years for our Change for Charity programme. The consensus was Cancer Research UK and KidsOut, two different but equally deserving charities.”
"This is the first time ever; Travelodge has embarked on such a large scale nationwide fundraising day. We have around 120 events planned across the UK and I am confident that we will beat our days target of £10,000”.
KidsOut is a children’s charity founded in 1999 to give disadvantaged children and young people fun, positive experiences that contribute to their development, well-being and outlook for a happier future. Every year, KidsOut helps over 35,000 children who may have escaped
domestic violence, have a life-limiting illness, have special educational needs or have become young carers.
David Cosham, KidsOut CEO, said: "It’s amazing that such a well known company like Travelodge has dedicated a whole day of fundraising across the nation to support KidsOut. The money raised from the Travelodge Red Day will make a huge difference to our charity work and it will certainly bring a smile to hundreds of disadvantaged children across the UK"
A similar fundraising day (The Travelodge Pink Day) is planned for Monday 11th October 2011, for Travelodge’s other charity Cancer Research UK.
In addition, to the Red fundraising day, Chief Executive Guy Parsons and a team of 17 staff members are undertaking a sponsored challenge to cycle 235 miles from London to Paris on the 16th June 2011. The team are aiming to complete the route in four days, apart from Guy Parsons who has set himself the challenge of just three days as he cannot afford to take too much time out of the business.
To support its Change for Charity programme, Travelodge was the first hotel chain to partner up with Pennies - the online donation box service so that Travelodge customers have the option to round up their room purchase when booking online to the nearest pound. The money donated is split 75% amongst Travelodge’s two nominated charities and the remaining balance is donated to Pennies charities.
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For more information, please contact:
Sharday Wells
PR Executive
T +44 (0)1844 358 624
Notes to editors:
For further information on KidsOut please visit www.kidsout.org.uk
About Travelodge
The first budget hotel brand to launch in the UK in 1985, Travelodge now operates over 470 hotels (over 32,000 rooms) - ten in Ireland, three in Spain and the rest in the UK. Travelodge plans to grow its estate to 100,000 rooms (approximately 1,100 hotels) by 2025.
13 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 chain employs 6,000 staff and is owned by Dubai International Capital.