Travelodge Hotels is behind two chains familiar to the flagging motorist, Travelodge and Little Chef. It now has more than 250 low-cost hotels around Britain, offering rooms from £25 a night – sometimes less. The company recently opened its first low-cost hotel in Spain and is planning to create a further 6,000 rooms by 2006, half of which will be in Central London. Travelodge is owned by the venture-capital firm Permira, which bought the company in February 2003 from Compass for £712m. Its sales were £368m in 2002, which remain the latest available results.