Today, Travelodge, the UK’s largest independent hotel chain that operates 579 hotels across the UK including 79 hotels in London, announces it is the first company within the UK hospitality sector to pilot and rollout the British Heart Foundation’s new first-of-its-kind online CPR training tool: RevivR.

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) has been Travelodge’s nominated charity (voted by the company’s 10,000 staff members) since 2017. To date, staff and customers have collectively raised nearly £700,000 for the cardiovascular research charity that was founded in 1961.

The BHF has been testing its RevivR app with three of the UK’s largest companies since the beginning of the year. In addition to Travelodge, the other BHF partners, who have been instrumental in testing and optimising RevivR, are Royal Mail and Tesco.

RevivR has been created by the BHF to help up-skill the nation on CPR and defibrillation skills. The tool is free and easy to use – you just need a mobile phone and a pillow. RevivR teaches users how to recognise a cardiac arrest, gives feedback when practising chest compressions and allows users to practice using a defibrillator. It is designed to give people the confidence to step in and help save a life in a medical emergency.

As the first company in the hospitality industry to roll out the tool, Travelodge is promoting the tool to staff through internal communications. It has seen excellent engagement and feedback, and the group’s goal is for all Travelodge staff to have the opportunity to be trained in lifesaving CPR through RevivR. Travelodge also plans to add the RevivR QR code into over 43,000 of its UK rooms to encourage customers to complete the CPR training.

Tom Edwards, Travelodge Chief Revenue Officer, said: “The British Heart Foundation has been our staff-nominated charity since 2017 and we are delighted to be the first UK hotel brand to support the charity’s RevivR launch. Our nationwide staff trials, which includes colleagues from our hotels in London as well as members of our Executive Operating Board, have been extremely successful and built great momentum across the business. This summer, we will further support this great lifesaving initiative by raising awareness of the importance of CPR to over 10,000 colleagues and to our nationwide customer base, which includes millions of business and leisure travellers.

“We are delighted to support the BHF, whose pioneering research and discoveries of vital treatments are crucial in leading the fight against heart disease. We are very much looking forward to continuing to work with our nominated charity to save lives today and in the future.”

Dr Charmaine Griffiths, British Heart Foundation Chief Executive, said:
“Our BHF team were determined to do more to help save lives after watching Christian Eriksen’s collapse last year, knowing the sad reality is that today less than one in ten people survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the UK.

“Our new RevivR web based app is a quick and easy way to learn a lifesaving skill – all you need is your mobile phone and a firm cushion. In just 15 minutes it teaches you how to recognise a cardiac arrest, gives you personalised feedback as you practice chest compressions and increases your confidence to use a defibrillator.

“The support and commitment our partners have given through piloting RevivR has been invaluable. Travelodge, Tesco and Royal Mail will each be helping us reach more people to give them the skills to save a life. Far too many of us will witness a cardiac arrest in our lifetime, and it could happen to someone you love. Take the few minutes to learn or brush up your skills. It could help you save a life.”

The BHF is determined to do more to help save lives, aiming to reach a million people with CPR training this year to help increase survival rates. It has pledged that free CPR training through RevivR will soon be available to every workplace and sector, to improve CPR skills within any organisation’s workforce.