The couple who stopped at a Travelodge - and stayed there for 22 years

To the weary traveller, roadside hotels are usually little more than a welcome pitstop for one night at the very most.

However, for David and Jean Davidson, the Travelodge chain is the place they have called home for 22 years.

The couple, who never have to cook, clean, do the washing up or make a bed, spent their first night in a roadside Travelodge in 1985 when they drove to visit an elderly aunt in Staffordshire who was in poor health.



They enjoyed their stay so much that when the aunt died four months later they moved out of their flat in Sheffield and took up residence at the Travelodge in Newark, Nottinghamshire.

In 1997, they moved into a new Travelodge on the A1 at Grantham, Lincolnshire, where they still live. Yesterday Mr Davidson, 79, a former Royal Navy sailor who served in the Second World War, said: “We have everything we need here — and the staff are like family now. We get great rates because we book well in advance and all our bed linen is laundered too. It doesn’t get much better than that does it?”

The couple have spent no less than £97,000 on their hotel costs over the course of 22 years — a sum which could have bought them a two bedroom terrace home in the Lincolnshire area.