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Premier Inn reports sales increase and record occupancy

Premier Inn delivered half hear sales growth of 14.7% with a record occupancy of 84% at its UK hotels.


The figures for the six months to August 28 were revealed today by parent company Whitbread which saw the underlying profit in its hotels and restaurants division rise by 15% to £225 million.


The company plans to spend £100 million this financial year on the refurbishment of hotels, up from £80 million last year.


Chief executive Andy Harrison said: “We have recently launched four foreign language websites – French, German, Italian and Spanish – to facilitate bookings from overseas, which continue to grow as we increase our share of the London hotel market.


“Business customers contribute around 55% of our sales and our Business Account Card and managed accounts, used by frequent business guests, accounted for around 27% of our sales.”


He added: “Our dynamic pricing systems aim to deliver efficient pricing for all our UK hotels, with the combination of high occupancy and great value for money.


“In the first half of this year total revpar [revenue per available room] grew by 8.8% and occupancy by 3.7% points to a high of 84%.


“We continue to win market share in both London and the UK regions. In London we achieved total sales growth of 11% with available rooms up 9.8% and total revpar up 1.5% as occupancy remained high at 88.9%.


“In the UK regions we delivered total sales growth of 15.6% with available rooms growth of 5% and total revpar increasing 10.2%, assisted by an improving regional economy. Regional occupancy rose 4.2% points to 83.3%.”


Premier Inn expects to open around 4,500 new UK rooms this year and around 5,500 new rooms in the next financial year.


This comes as part of a plan to increase capacity to 75,000 rooms by 2018, up from 56,019 across 681 UK hotels – 36% more than its nearest rival.


The number of rooms in London is set to double to around 18,000 by 2018.


The first of the chain’s new-generation hub by Premier Inn opens in St Martin’s Lane next month.


The company plans to open around 2,500 hub rooms with nine hotels in London by 2018 in addition to three in Edinburgh.


 

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