The Travelodge off the Fiveways roundabout on the A11 near Mildenhall is among the first of 500 hotels in the budget chain to undergo refurbishment under a major £223million investment programme.

Work on the 62-room hotel, which originally opened in 1988, was carried out over a three-week period with no disruption to trade, and included new room layouts and new beds.

It is part of a company-wide investment this year to help grow the business and strengthen the Travelodge brand. It includes 14 new Travelodge hotel openings this year (12 UK based and two in Spain) and a £57m refurbishment programme.

Rodica Shortt, hotel manager at Barton Mills Travelodge, said: “We are very excited to have been selected as one of the first hotels across the Travelodge estate to benefit from this investment.

“The work was carried out with no disturbance to our day to day operation and the feedback we have received from customers has been outstanding.”

By the end of the year, Travelodge plans to have refitted more than 50% of all its rooms, with 3,000 completed at the end of the Barton Mills refurbishment. By autumn 2014, almost 90% of Travelodge’s estate will incorporate the new room design, meaning the makeover will see an average of more than 50 rooms refurbished every day for the next 18 months.

The refurbishment follows 12 months of extensive research with Travelodge customers to create an inviting, functional and relaxing room for business and leisure travellers.