Budget hotel chain Travelodge has announced that Guy Parsons will take up the position of chief executive officer from 1 July, after being chosen to succeed Grant Hearn.

Hearn - the group's chief executive officer since 2003 - is poised to become executive chair, while former non-executive chair Keith Hamill has been appointed deputy chair. Parsons joined Travelodge as its managing director UK in October 2004, having served as managing director at restaurant chain TGI Friday's and sales and marketing director at Whitbread.

Hearn said: "Now that we are recovering from this challenging period, it is time for the next phase of development for this company. "Travelodge will flourish under Guy's leadership, while I will be able to focus on new expansion opportunities to provide us with another gear of growth going forward."

Parsons added: "Despite the recession we have continued to grow during the last twelve months. More importantly, we have created an exceptional platform for growth that we can exploit now that the downturn is fading." Travelodge has also confirmed the appointment of Jon Hendry-Pickup as operations director, who was formerly based in the Czech Republic in his position as operations director for Tesco.