Premier Inn and Travelodge consolidated their hold on the budget hotel market during 2008.
Whitbread's Premier Inn led the table with more than 518 hotels and 36,000-plus bedrooms.
Travelodge, now owned by Dubai International Capital, was the second largest budget hotel group, with more than 333 properties offering a combined 23,150 bedrooms.
The British Hospitality Association defines a budget hotel as a strongly-branded offer with generally compact rooms, a small food and beverage operation and limited facilities and services. Tariffs are typically less than £100 per room in the provinces and around £120 in London.
These facts and figures are reported in British Hospitality: Trends and Statistics 2008, published by the British Hospitality Association.
The full report (which is free to BHA members) can be bought for £250 (for the printed version) or £200 (for a PDF file). Prices are progressively discounted as the year moves on. For enquiries or orders, phone 0207 404 7744 or contact bob.bacon@bha.org.uk.
View the top budget hotel brands from the 2007 report >>
View the top budget hotel brands from the 2006 report >>
THE UK BUDGET HOTEL MARKET BY NUMBER OF ROOMS, 2001 and 2008
| | Brand | Company | Hotels 2008 | Hotels 2001 | Rooms 2008 | Rooms 2001 |
| 1 | Premier Inn | Whitbread | 518+ | 405 | 36,000+ | 23,300 |
| 2 | Travelodge | Dubai
International
Capital | 333+ | 215 | 23,150+ | 11,600 |
| 3 | Express by Holiday Inn* | InterContinental
Hotels | 120 | 63 | 12,589 | 5,900 |
| 4 | Ibis | Accor | 50 | 44 | 6,989 | 4,000 |
| 5 | Jurys Inn | Quinlan Private, Oman Investment Fund | 17 | - | 4,538 | |
| 6 | Innkeeper's Lodge | Mitchells & Butlers | 91 | 31 | 2,650 | - |
| 7 | Etap | Accor | 12 | 2 | 1,732 | 69 |
| 8 | Campanile | Louvre Hotels | 19 | 15 | 1,588 | 1,100 |
| 9 | Days Inn* (19 run by Welcome Break) | Wyndham Worldwide | 25 | 14 | 1,420 | 900 |
| 10 | Purplehotels (was Sleep Inn) | The Real Hotel Company | 10 | 3 | 812 | 225 |
| 11 | Ramada Encore* | Wyndham
Worldwide | 6 | - | 715 | - |
| 12 | Comfort Inn* | Choice Hotels International | 13 | 31 | 649 | 2,050 |
| 13 | Formule 1 | Accor | 5 | 8 | 405 | 590 |
| 14 | Stop Inns | The Real Hotel Company | 6 | - | 385 | - |
| 15 | Future Inns | Future Inns | 2 | - | 346 | - |
| 16 | Metro Inns | Metro Inns | 5 | - | 345 | - |
| 17 | JDW Lodges | JD Wetherspoon | 13 | 5 | 337 | 89 |
| 18 | easyHotel* | easyGroup | 4 | - | 240 | - |
| 19 | Urban Lodge | Willow Street Hotels | 1 | - | 205 | - |
| 20 | Big Sleep | Big Sleep | 3 | - | 191 | - |
| 21 | Welcome Lodge | Welcome Break | 2 | 9 | 182 | 569 |
| 22 | Nitenite Cityrooms | Nitenite | 1 | - | 104 | - |
| 23 | Yotel | Yotel | 2 | - | 90 | - |
| 24 | Dolby Hotel | Dolby Hotels | 1 | 2 | 64 | 130 |
| 25 | Lodge on the Park | Shire Hotels | 1 | - | 36 | - |
| | TOTAL | | 1,292 | 849 | 97,701 | 50,397 |
Source: Wordsmith & Company
Figures up to 31 August 2008
* includes hotels franchised to another operator
† excludes the conversion of 21 Express by Holiday Inns from Mitchells & Butlers to Premier Inn, September 2008