Balfour and Travelodge settle £800,000 dispute

Balfour Beatty is on site carrying out work on a Travelodge hotel after an £800,000 dispute over alleged combustible cladding and other defects was settled.

In 2020, Construction News revealed that Travelodge was suing Balfour over what it said were faults at the 70-room hotel on Princess Way, Swansea.

Travelodge claimed that the building had combustible zinc panels installed on part of the building alongside timber cladding, which had been installed without a fire-retardant coating. The hotelier also claimed that cavity barriers were not correctly installed around openings including windows behind the zinc or timber cladding systems and where the two different facade systems met.

The hotel and flats were completed in 2006 by Cowlin Construction – which was later acquired by Balfour Beatty.

Balfour disputed Travelodge’s case, arguing that the cladding was not combustible and said defects in the building might have been the hotelier’s fault for not having arranged post-construction maintenance works.

Both agreed that the hotel was nevertheless safe for guests to occupy.

The two parties entered into a confidential settlement over the dispute last year, and the contractor is now carrying out works on site.

A Travelodge spokesperson said this week: “The work being currently carried out at our Swansea Princess Way hotel is an agreement reached between ourselves, Balfour Beatty and the property landlord.”

Balfour Beatty said it was unable to comment on the issue.

The case was one of several that CN revealed were playing out in the civil courts at the time, with hotel chains and contractors disputing liability for the cost of remediating apparently combustible cladding on their premises after checks were made following the Grenfell Tower tragedy.