Guide to RoadChef Lodge

RoadChef Lodge was the initial name for Roadchef's line of budget accommodation, aiming to offer better facilities than those recently opened by rivals Granada Lodge and Welcome Break's Travelodge. A night at the RoadChef Lodge initially cost £29 (around £78 in 2025), and each site was originally promoted by its site name, such as "Hamilton Lodge".

Each hotel had the word "Lodge" written in large, red, cursive text above the door. A sign next to it used the full RoadChef Lodge logo, which had Roadchef's corporate logo written above the word 'Lodge'.

Roadchef registered the name Superlodge Ltd in 1995, but this was never used publicly. In 1996, drawings of a potential RoadLodge logo emerged, but again it's not clear if this was a serious proposal.

As the size of the market became clear, Roadchef looked at opening hotels elsewhere, such as by the NEC and Wembley. They worked very closely with Premier Lodge, who had been linked with Holiday Inn Express. With more Holiday Inn Expresses opening near motorways, there were rumours that RoadChef Lodge was about to be removed in favour of that name.

However, before this could happen, Roadchef's motorway interests were sold, leaving behind their non-motorway hotels which were now under construction. These opened under the name Ingram Hotel.

The remaining RoadChef Lodges were branded Travel Inn in 2000, under a licence which allowed brand owners Whitbread to operate the hotels but not manage the staff. The new branding helped Travel Inn grow, and aimed to sever the public's view that a motorway hotel would be as bad as they thought the service stations were.

Locations

The service areas known to have a RoadChef Lodge were:

• Clacket Lane (M25)
• Durham (A1(M))
• Hamilton (M74)
• Killington Lake (M6)
• Maidstone (M20)
• Rownhams (M27)
• Strensham (M5)
• Taunton Deane (M5)