Travelodge customers donate £1 million to charity online with Pennies

Travelodge was the first hotel brand to partner with charity Pennies, which enables customers to donate when booking a room online.

To celebrate International Charity Day, Travelodge is delighted to announce that its customers are all heart by raising a million pounds. Customers are making a digital donation with Pennies when booking their room online to make a real difference to people’s lives.

Travelodge, the UK’s first budget hotel brand, which operates 591 hotels, was the first hotel brand to partner with Pennies. Customers can donate an optional 50p when booking their room at  www.travelodge.co.uk.

The one million pounds raised has been donated to Travelodge charity partners chosen by the 11,000 Travelodge staff members. The current partner is the British Heart Foundation. Previous partners include: Macmillan Cancer Support, Cancer Research UK and KidsOut UK – who have all benefited from these funds.

Pennies, is an award-winning charity which protects and grows micro-donations. It provides the public, digital ways to donate small amounts of money just with a simple press of a button or a click which is vital for charitable causes.

Tom Edwards, Travelodge Revenue Director said:

“Our website attracts over a million visitors each week and it is a great platform for customers to donate their spare change with Pennies and make a real difference to people lives.  We are very proud and grateful to our customers for their generosity in raising a million pounds and supporting so many charities, including our current partner, the British Heart Foundation.  It really goes to show in for a penny, in for a million pounds.”

Alison Hutchinson CBE, CEO Pennies said:

“Travelodge was our first-in-sector hotel partner embracing the use of financial digital technology as a force for good. We are so thrilled they have surpassed £1M, which has benefited a wealth of causes working in communities all across the UK.

“Currently, just a week of donations from Travelodge customers can allow British Heart Foundation to buy a year’s supply of molecules that scientists use to look inside our heart and blood vessel cells.”

Paul Davies, Head of Corporate Partnerships at the British Heart Foundation said:

“The option to donate with Pennies when booking on the Travelodge website has been a fantastic mechanism for customers to support the British Heart Foundation.

“Thanks to Travelodge customers’ generosity, nearly £500,000 has been donated to fund ground-breaking research that will bring us closer to a world free from the heartbreak caused by heart and circulatory diseases. Every penny counts to keep heats beating and blood flowing.”

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For Further information, please contact

Travelodge Press Office
T: 01844 35 8703
E: pressoffice@travelodge.co.uk

About Travelodge

Founded in 1985, Travelodge is one of the UK’s leading hotel brands.  There are 591 Travelodge hotels in the UK, Ireland and Spain as at September 2020.  Travelodge welcomes approximately 19 million customers every year and over 11,000 colleagues work across the business.

About Pennies

As our daily lives are changing, Pennies wants to make sure everyone has the chance to donate to charity where they can, especially online and in-app.

The opportunity is urgent, and ground-breaking in its possibility: there is a potential if each of us gave around 35p a week, for UK consumers to raise £1bn a year for charity. Micro-donations matter, now more than ever.

In total, across 65+ partners, Pennies has enabled an incredible 100 million small change digital donations to date through its digital charity box, raising over £25 million in extra income for around 600 charities, and growing. www.pennies.org.uk.

About British Heart Foundation

With donations from the public, the BHF funds ground-breaking research that will get us closer than ever to a world free from the fear of heart and circulatory diseases. A world where broken hearts are mended, where millions more people survive a heart attack, where the number of people dying from or disabled by a stroke is slashed in half. A world where people affected by heart and circulatory diseases get the support they need. And a world of cures and treatments we can’t even imagine today. We are backing the best ideas, the brightest minds and the biggest ambitions – because that’s how we’ll beat heartbreak forever.

The BHF’s Heart Helpline is open Monday to Friday between 9am – 5pm. Call is 0300 330 3311 or email hearthelpline@bhf.org.uk. Calls to the Heart Helpline cost a similar rate to 01 02 numbers