Press Officer

The job in a nutshell

We are seeking a skilled and experienced Press Officer to join our busy press office and play an important role in protecting Travelodge’s brand reputation by ensuring that enquiries are investigated and responded to effectively. This is an exciting opportunity to join a dynamic and extremely fast-paced PR function for one of the UK’s largest hotel brands.

What you’ll be doing:
You will play a crucial role in shaping Travelodge’s image, reputation and public perception.

Handling enquiries from the press, the public and key stakeholders

Manage crisis PR events or incidents

You will conduct initial investigations into any potential issues, working with internal stakeholders to pull together a detailed internal account. Using this information, you will pull together the first media response statement.

Support Media engagement programme

You will work with the wider PR team and, alongside drafting written response, arrange for spokespeople to speak to the media. You will also work with a variety of journalists and will foster good relations with the media which will allow you to engage them/pitch in the organisation’s press releases

Prepare written communications for use across a wide range of channels

You will be responsible for writing articles, press releases and content for the company’s social media pages. You will also update and upload content onto the Corporate website to ensure all externally-facing content is up-to-date.

Support in the co-ordination/management of events

Working with colleagues across the PR team you will support activities such as New Hotel Openings and press events

Help to devise and produce proactive PR campaigns

You will support your PR colleagues across Corporate, Property and Trade media sectors as well across social media and internal communications. This may also entail project managing the production of visual communications and digital content.

Monitor media coverage and prepare regular evaluation reports

You will support in measuring the success of the PR activity and produce media evaluation reports for senior stakeholders

Support with research and data analysis

Working with the PR team you will support in the commissioning of relevant market research and then take an active role in the data analysis to pull out relevant media stories

What we’ll expect from you
- Excellent written and spoken English
- Copywriting: You need to be hot on spelling, grammar, and proofreading, as well as have a creative flair for producing engaging content with a twist
- Excellent telephone manner: You will spend a lot of your time communicating on the phone with the press, key stakeholders and members of the public, so you need to have the confidence to pick up the phone and speak to them, whilst maintaining a positive and friendly tone
- Time-keeping: You may sometimes be working to tight media deadlines so you need to be able to work quickly and efficiently, without compromising on quality
- Resilience: You must be confident enough to pick up the phone to journalists and resilient enough to handle push back and tricky questions if/when received.
- Awareness of the media’s different audiences and sensitivity to how they are addressed
- Good and clear understanding of the importance of social media and being comfortable editing and posting in social media formats
- A consistent interest in the news and current affairs
- Great organisational skills

**Qualifications**:

- Relevant experience of working in PR / the media - ideally 1-2 years of previous experience working in a busy press office
- Experience in event coordination is desirable

At Travelodge, we believe that behaviours are just as important as the activities you carry out. The ones we look for in every colleague are:
I care about people
- I treat everyone in a way I would like to be treated
- I am easy to work with
- I have a can do attitude
- I care about the impact my work has on others

I pay attention to detail
- I do the little things that make a difference to our customers
- I work to brand standards
- I treat Travelodge time, equipment and stock as if it were my own

I drive for results
- I hit targets in my role and work at the right pace
- I take ownership of problems and try to fix them fast
- I look for ways to avoid future problems
- I look for ways to promote Travelodge

What you can expect from us

Culture

At Travelodge, we are warm, straightforward and optimistic. We have a big footprint in the UK, but still a small company feel and you can expect quality and value to be built in to everything we do. You’ll have the support of a close network of colleagues and managers, and every day is different here We want you to bring your personality to work and we love our diversity.

Reward and recognition

It’s not just our customers we want to wake up with a smile on their face. As well as a competitive salary, being part of our hotel support centre means great holi