The Business Problem
Travelodge Hotel were using a traditional lightweight steel frame bathroom pod system to build their hotels. This design relied heavily on a plasterboard and traditionally tiled bathroom solution. However over time the bathroom tiles had become discoloured, suffered with age related issues and proved a challenge to maintain to their high brand standards.
The Travelodge Hotel chain first approached Walker modular in 2009 to investigate Walker Modular’s new bathroom pod innovations and the potential use of them with their new hotel developments.
Central to the contract was that Walker Modular would produce a bespoke Marine Grade Composite bathroom pod from a one piece moulded design. The bathroom pod had to be self cleaning with an element of infection control and require little or no maintenance.
How We Helped
A team of 4 specialists was assigned to the project, with skills in different areas including product design, technical development, project and service management. Our first task was to create a bathroom pod that could be manufactured in a true one piece design that did not rely on a silicone jointing system. The bathroom surface had to be self-cleaning in order to reduce the amount of cleaning require on a morning turnaround.
Once the mould was agreed and the design had been selected Walker Modular set about upgrading the interior of the bathroom using the latest bathroom fitting offered by ideal Standard. To maintain the look and feel for Travelodge a bespoke granite effect wall panelling system was developed that was also of a self-cleaning nature.
The moulds were manufactured and Walker Modular began supplying bathroom pods in 2009 at a rate of 4000 per year.