Bridging the gap between business and community: how Travelodge embraced micro-donations

In July 2022, Travelodge launched its first official sustainability plan – setting out its caring and conscious agenda. Of course, since 2011, Travelodge has been offering its customers Pennies during the online booking process, and – without fanfare – has raised thousands of pounds for some amazing UK charities.

Creating a Better Future for customers, colleagues and the planet.

For the brand, Pennies was an obvious way to begin making an impact in the communities in which it operates.

“Pennies bridges the gap between fantastic customers and amazing charities…. Nearly everything is pre-booked at Travelodge and we have to keep things straightforward. Pennies is a low barrier to entry for customers to make a booking and give.”

Tom Edwards, Chief Revenue Officer, Travelodge

Watch the story in full below, featuring insights from Tom Edwards of Travelodge, Ermelinda Ceci of British Heart Foundation and Alison Hutchinson CBE of Pennies:

Micro-donations boots British Heart Foundation’s capacity to fundraise

For current charity partner, British Heart Foundation (BHF), the income they receive from Travelodge’s generous customers’ donations is transformative.

“We’ve been working in partnership with Travelodge and Pennies since 2017. And during that time, Travelodge customers have donated over half a million pounds to the British Heart Foundation to help fund life-saving research, which is a phenomenal achievement. Our partnership with Travelodge focuses on saving lives today and saving lives tomorrow.”

Ermelinda Ceci, Corporate Partnerships Manager, British Heart Foundation

For BHF, Pennies has also enabled them to bolster their digital fundraising and the small amounts chime with the way they see customer/public giving behaviour changing.

“Pennies made a huge difference to the scale of our digital fundraising. Travelodge has over 10 million customers a year, and we truly appreciate the opportunity to spread awareness of our work and raise vital funds for life-saving research. [Especially] given the current climate, Pennies is providing an affordable donation mechanism.”

Ermelinda Ceci

For Travelodge, fundraising is Pennies

Travelodge is a success story as much as it is a founders’ story. As one of the first hospitality brands to recognise the potential of Pennies, Travelodge had belief from the start that the micro-donations movement was something worth joining as a business. And what a journey (and bed for the night) it continues to be!

“Working with Pennies meant that our customers could donate to BHF. BHF then invested in the relationship with us, which means that we’re one of the launch partners of the new RevivR tool. The RevivR is absolutely revolutionary. It changes the CPR training from passing across the resuscitation dolly to being fully digital.”

Tom Edwards

Watch the full story

Watch the video to hear how Pennies can contribute to a businesses’ sustainability and responsibility strategy, before they even have one.

Find out more

Pennies works hand in hand with retailers, charities and payments technology providers to unlock the potential for thousands of customers to donate every day. Together we increase the amount businesses can give by tapping into the industry-wide move to digital payments.