Article from BTNews 9 MAY 2016
Travelodge's Chinese welcome
Chinese visitors to the UK are being given a special welcome at Travelodge’s latest hotel at Bicester, Oxfordshire.
The property is near the Bicester Village designer shopping outlet, which attracts 6m visitors a year and is the second-biggest attraction in Britain for the Chinese after Buckingham Palace.
Travelodge said it experienced a 61% increase in web traffic from China after it launched the 53-room hotel on its website.
It responded by recruiting Oxford University Chinese tutor Katy Wang to teach staff Chinese etiquette and key welcome phrases in Mandarin.
Staff were told they should never give a Chinese guest a room on the fourth floor or with the number four in it because in Mandarin the number four sounds too similar to the word death.
Travelodge is also trialling special kettles which cook noodles in minutes and has created a bespoke Oriental snack box.
The hotel opening, the company’s fourth local-council partnership development, brings Travelodge’s portfolio to 530 properties.
Cherwell District Council has funded the construction on council land and Travelodge has undertaken a 25yr rental agreement to operate the hotel.
Bicester Village is on the Chiltern Railways service from London Marylebone to Oxford, which also offers Chinese translations. See BTN 9 November 2015
OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)
All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum