In a move which will see it become the largest hotel brand in London by 2012, budget hotel chain Travelodge has spent £84m acquiring six properties in the capital.

Spread across five boroughs and providing a total of 828 rooms, the sites are in Drury Lane, Covent Garden; Ealing; Stratford; Bromley and Lyon Road and Sheridan Road, both in Harrow. With these six exchanges, plus a further seven hotels currently being built, Travelodge will operate 45 hotels in the capital by the summer of 2012, equating to 6,482 rooms.

Travelodge's chief executive, Grant Hearn, said: "We have long stated our aim of being the lead brand in London by the time of the Olympic Games. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the tourism industry and one we intend to take with both hands." The new exchanges follow an announcement last month that Travelodge and Meghraj were to launch a £100m fund - Tamesis - with a view to acquiring between 8-14 going concern hotels from existing operators, banks and administrators, which would then be leased to Travelodge.