Whitbread pays almost £20m for three Premier Inn London sites

Whitbread has paid nearly £20m for three London hotels as part of its Premier Inn expansion.

The company, which also owns Costa Coffee, has acquired the hotels from the Real Hotel Company for £18.5m in cash.

The properties comprise the Quality Hotel in Westminster, the Comfort Inn in Kensington and the Purple Hotel in the City.

Whitbread will spend £12m converting the properties into Premier Inn hotels and already has three new-build hotels in development in Waterloo, Ealing and Old Street in the capital.

The announcement means Premier Inn is currently on course to increase its total number of rooms in the capital by 800 to 6,500 by 2011.

Whitbread chief executive Alan Parker said the addition was a “great start” to the group’s sated aim to be the “largest hotel chain in London”. 

Last year Real launched it’s own budget hotel chain, Purple, to compete with Premier Inn and Travelodge.

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By Gemma Sharkey

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