For the first time in a century, a budget hotel room has been built at the highest point in Britain. The 'room with a view' was constructed by a team of intrepid adventurers from the UK's leading budget hotel brand, Travelodge.
The 36-strong team led by Paul Harvey, Travelodge Managing Director for Property & International, climbed the 1,344 metre peak carrying the contents and furnishing of Travelodge's new room. This included: room walls, the Travelodge Dreamer bed, a duvet, a sheet with four pillows, a chair and a picture.
The team embarked on their quest at 6.30am on Thursday 27th June 2013 and it took them fours hours to ascend Ben Nevis, two hours to construct the room and two hours and 30 minutes to descend. In total the team walked nearly 11 miles and burnt nearly 3,000 calories each.
This unique quest was undertaken in a bid to raise £50,000 for the Company's nominated charity Macmillan Cancer Support.
This is only the second time in recorded history that a hotel room has been built on the summit of Ben Nevis. During 1894 to 1916 the Temperance hotel provided accommodation for climbers during the summer months.
Paul Harvey, Travelodge Managing Director for Property & International said: "Travelodge is renowned for building innovative hotels and we certainly love a good challenge. So as part of our fundraising programme, we thought it would be a good idea to take our new Travelodge room to new heights and you don't get any higher in the UK than the summit of Bed Nevis.
"It was certainly one of the hardest constructions we have ever undertaken. The terrain is very steep and exhausting, and all that weight makes it even more of a challenge.
"Although it rained on the way up, the weather conditions were actually perfect for the challenge as the rain kept us cool and when we reached the summit the wind stopped blowing which was a great bonus when constructing the room on the snow.
"It was certainly worth the pain, as the views from the highest hotel room in Britain were breathtaking.
"The team are absolutely thrilled to have accomplished the mission and it is a great feeling of achievement, as not many people can say they have carried and built a hotel room on top of Britain's highest mountain.
"In support of our quest, we are delighted to have raised over £60,000 for our nominated charity Macmillan Cancer Support."
Sally Hill, Account Manager, from Macmillan Cancer Support said: "We are delighted to be working with Travelodge. This was a really impressive feat by their team and Macmillan is so grateful for their support. Macmillan believes that no one should face cancer alone and with all of us working together, and with the support of Travelodge, we can help ensure no one will."
Some of Travelodge's innovative hotel designs include:
- Europe's first modified shipping container hotel (Uxbridge Travelodge) – which is an eight storey hotel built from 86 modified shipping container-like structures, stacked on top of each other and bolted together
- The Travelpod which was the UK's first mobile hotel room
- A hotel built on the site of an old railway station in Durham – the hallways of the hotel are the old station's platform
- A converted watermill into a hotel in Halifax
- Built a hotel above a comedy club at Bethnal Green in London Built the first hotel above a supermarket – co-partnerships include Tesco's, Waitrose, Aldi and Lidl
- Introduced a unique metro hotel model
- Fish therapy rooms to help guests relax in a bid to obtain a good night's sleep
Supporting images of the UK's highest point hotel room are available by calling the Travelodge press office on 01844 35 8703.
The complete team are listed in the table below.
| Team Member | Place of Residence | |
| Paul Harvey | London | |
| Emily Harvey | London | |
| Karen Ceely | Barton Le Clay, Bedfordshire | |
| Kathryn Devey | Princes Risborough | |
| Horacio Alcala | Spain (Madrid) | |
| Tony O'Brien | Newport Pagnell | |
| Emma Bridgewood | Birmingham | |
| Steve Tyler | Wales | |
| Fiona Carter | Wales | |
| Alan Oliver | Fenstanton | |
| Neil Short | Watford | |
| John Hardy | Berkhamsted | |
| Crawford Cole | Newcastle | |
| Jeff Hocking | Chester | |
| Nick Howard | Ormskirk | |
| Gary Hankers | Milton Keynes | |
| Scott Rutherford | Birmingham | |
| Phil Rowe | Shaftsbury | |
| Ian Pidgeon | Nottingham | |
| Adam Morgan | Wales | |
| Allan Bull | Aylesbury | |
| Clare Alcock | Hitchin | |
| Iain King | Hatfield, Herts | |
| Shaun Baugh | Birmingham | |
| Nigel Himpson | Bicester | |
| Matthew Young | Cobham, Surrey | |
| Allan Campbell | Luton | |
| Steve Harrison | Reading | |
| Kalpesh Khetani | London | |
| Jagdish Kumar | Reading | |
| Gavin Law | Horton-Cum-Studley | |
| Daniel Mallet | Garsingston, Oxfordshire | |
| Sophie White | Worminghall | |
| Robin Wilson | Dunstable | |
| Belinda Bridgman | Banbury | |
| Steve Jenkins | Buckingham |
About Travelodge:
The first budget hotel brand to launch in the UK in 1985, Travelodge now operates over 500 hotels and 37,000 rooms across the UK, Ireland and Spain . More than 16.5 million people stayed with Travelodge last year and 90% of reservations are currently made online at www.travelodge.co.uk, which is the UK's most visited hotel website, attracting over 1.1 million visits each week.
Travelodge is benefitting from a £223 million brand investment this year, which includes a £57m refurbishment programme across its estate and a brand new room concept created by Travelodge customers. This programme kicked off on the 4th March 2013 and will be completed in autumn 2014.
In addition to offering more comfort, style and quality, the new room features the Travelodge Dreamer, a new luxury king size bed deemed in the industry as the 'Rolls Royce' of beds.
Source: MarketWired
