Premier Inn secures two new hotels in west country
Whitbread has completed deals on new Premier Inn sites in Weymouth and Weston-super-Mare, which will add 180 bedrooms to its UK portfolio.
This will boost its current collection of 580 hotels and 42,000 rooms, in line with plans to add another 15,000 rooms in the UK by 2014.
Richard Pearson, acquisition manager for Premier Inn, said: “Premier Inn is in growth mode and we have turned up the burners to ensure we can expand our portfolio in line with the strong customer demand for our hotels and restaurants.
“There are important opportunities for us in the West of England and we have gaps to fill in our overall UK network plan.
“These two sites help to fill those gaps and increase the accessibility of Premier Inns to our customers in attractive seaside and leisure destinations.”
Premier Inn – West England
The two new hotels include a 60-bedroom Premier Inn on Dorchester Way in Weymouth and a 116-bedroom Premier Inn on Dolphin Square in Weston-super-Mare.
The Wemouth site will also include a Beefeater Grill restaurant, while the Weston-upon-Mare site will include a Brewers Fayre restaurant.
Whitbread said the Weston-super-Mare site fronts directly onto the Promenade, so the group hopes it will attract leisure customers and the leisure pound.
The Weymouth hotel is expected to benefit from the investment and regeneration brought by the Olympic yachting events.
The new deals, which are still subject to planning, will see a collective investment of around £14m. Once up and running, it is expected that they will create some 120 new jobs.
