Owned by the Whitbread group, Premier Inn (formerly Premier Travel Inn), is not just the UK’s biggest budget hotel chain, it is the largest player in the overall UK hotel market by bedroom numbers.
By September 2007, Premier Inn was operating in excess of 488 hotels with more than 32,000 bedrooms – a number it plans to expand to 45,000 by 2010. Its nearest rivals were the InterContinental Hotel Group (with 32,540 bedrooms) and budget hotel operator Travelodge with 18,950 rooms.
Premier Inn hotels are found in city centres and also on the outskirts of towns and cities on major A-roads. Daily rates are charged per room (rather than per person) and start from £48, although they are typically £55 or more.
Whitbread founded the Premier Travel Inn chain in 1987 as a rival to Forte’s budget Travelodge brand, initially under the Travel Inn name. The largely new-build, no-frills hotels were often co-located with pub-restaurants such as Beefeater and Brewers Fayre.
The estate received a big boost in numbers (plus a name change to Premier Travel Inn) after Whitbread bought 142 Premier Lodge hotels along with 19 adjoining pub-restaurants from the Spirit Group in 2004 for £505m. This acquisition allowed the Premier Travel Inn to snatch Travelodge’s crown as the UK’s leading budget chain.
However, in June 2007, Whitbread decided the brand name needed greater differentiation from Travelodge in consumers’ minds and announced a £21m investment to rebrand it Premier Inn.
In common with arch-rival Travelodge, Premier Inn is now looking to expand overseas and initially intends to take the brand to the Middle East in 2008.
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