Bournemouth Seafront Travelodge
Value: £4.5 million
Client: CHG Holdings
Seeking to expand their business within the Bournemouth area, Travelodge acquired this historic West Cliff hotel (originally known as The Tralee) in 2008. Travelodge wished to enlarge the capacity and refurbish the entire building to their 2010 design specification. As the hotel is within an established residential and tourist area, it was crucial that noise and disruption be kept to a minimum.
With an extensive track record of similar assignments with Travelodge, G&H had the expertise to ensure that the original and the new build construction were seamlessly blended to create a single entity. Members of the Considerate Constructor scheme, G&H devised a pro-active approach to communicating with the surrounding community and managing the logistics of the project to reduce disturbance around this extremely constrained site.
The existing building was completely scaffolded and a full internal strip undertaken. A new steel structure, weighing over 30 tonnes, was put into the original building to support the weight of the new 4, 2 bedroom penthouse apartments. A 6 storey extension housing 35 additional bedrooms was added to seamlessly blend into the original building, providing an overall capacity of 110 units. Finally, a total fit out to the new Travelodge 2010 design specification including a stylish Bar-Cafe was then completed.
By being able to design and build a major new extension to the existing building G&H have created a Travelodge hotel in a prime cliff top location for far less than the cost of a new build project, even if such land ever became available for development. Works on the project were completed to time and budget and Travelodge were able to open for business in good time for the important Christmas trading period.
