UPDATE: Travelodge Withdraws From UK Hotel Lobby Group

15th Jun 2010 15:00

(Adds further comment from the CEO and background) By Michael Carolan Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES LONDON (Dow Jones)--U.K. budget hotel company Travelodge Tuesday withdrew from industry lobby group The British Hospitality Association as the company's new chief executive seeks to distance the company from the rest of the industry. "In preparation of his new role as chief executive, on July 1, Guy Parsons, Travelodge's current managing director, has undertaken a company review and has decided to resign from the BHA," the company said in a statement. "It's counterintuitive being part of a body which represents thousands of individual hoteliers when actually what I'm trying to do is put a lot of hoteliers out of business," Parson's told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview. . "It's just not appropriate to us anymore," he said. "I think our brand has got to the point now where it's big enough to represent itself going forward," he added. "We don't need to talk through anyone else anymore," he said. Travelodge operates almost 400 hotels in the U.K. and also operates in Spain and the Republic of Ireland. it is owned by Dubai International Capital. Parson's said he didn't see himself as a hotelier. "Hoteliers just want to complicate things and muck about with things that just aren't important," he said. "I'm not at heart a traditional hotelier and a lot of the things that the hotel industry does, do nothing for me." Parsons said there had been no big falling out with the BHA and he's not trying to pull the BHA apart. "Some of the things that are important to us are going to be at odds with the majority of their membership," he said. "We want to take them over and convert them into budget hotels." The withdrawal marks a blow for the lobby group's new Chief Executive Ufi Ibrahim. Ibrahim's first task on taking over from BHA's current CEO Bob Cotton on July 19 is likely to be persuading other major hoteliers not to follow Travelodge's example. While the BHA has traditionally acted as a conduit between the hospitality sector and the government, in recent years large hotel companies such as Travelodge, Whitbread PLC (WTB.LN) and InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (IHG) have bypassed the BHA and conducted their own lobbying campaigns amid frustration at the BHA's performance. "We've managed to lead the fight on a number of things like the removal of the bed tax and some other initiatives," said Parsons. The BHA has also campaigned to change music licensing laws as well as food safety legislation--issues which are of no relevance to a budget hotel operator like Travelodge. -By Michael Carolan, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9278; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 15, 2010 10:00 ET (14:00 GMT)