Premier Inn owner Whitbread is to acquire 21 hotels currently operating as Express by Holiday Inn in exchange for 44 Whitbread pub restaurants.
The exchange will take the total number of UK Premier Inn hotels to 550. The company plans to extend five of the newly acquired hotels, adding around 200 rooms.
The 400 existing employees at the Express by Holiday Inn hotels will transfer to Whitbread and 1,300 pub employees will transfer to Express by Holiday Inn owner Mitchells & Butlers (MAB).
Whitbread chief executive Alan Parker said: “Acquiring this well located, modern hotel estate will enable us to re-brand quickly, increase profits and extend the number of rooms at these hotels by at least 20%
“We are exchanging these pub restaurant sites because we have been unable to develop a Premier Inn alongside, which was the reason for retaining them.”