Premier Inn plans hub expansion
The first hub opened in Covent Garden in 2014 and the brand has since expanded to four London sites and one in Edinburgh.
The group’s parent company Whitbread confirmed today it has a committed pipeline of 11 hub hotels as it looks to invest in its digital products.
Sites are set to open in Soho, Bank, Kings Cross, Shoreditch, Farringdon and Edinburgh's Torphichen Street, according to Whitbread's website.
Hub claims to be the only hotel brand in the world that allows guests to use an Apple Watch to book, check-in and control the hotel’s Smart TV’s.
Whitbread said guest feedback had been ‘extremely positive’ across all its hub sites, with occupancy reaching 84 per cent in London and 78 per cent in Edinburgh.
Alison Brittain, Whitbread chief executive, said: “In our hotels business, we are expanding the network of our new hub by Premier Inn city centre hotels and making progress in consolidating and rejuvenating our restaurant brands.”
Sales boost
It comes as Whitbread today (25 October) announced its half-year financial results, with pre-tax profits rising 5.4 per cent to £307m.
Like-for-like sales at Premier Inn rose 2.4 per cent in the 26 weeks to 1 September, while Costa sales rose 2.3 per cent.
The company also confirmed its new contemporary Bar + Block restaurant brand was ‘performing well’, with a further two openings planned for the second half of the year.
Brittain added that the group was on track to open 3,700 new Premier Inn rooms and up to 250 coffee shops worldwide this year, despite the UK’s ‘uncertain’ economic outlook.
Over the last three years Premier Inn has opened 86 hotels, with sales rising 40 per cent.
The group has a target to grow its number of UK rooms to 85,000 by 2020.
