Sales at Premier Inn grew by more than 10% during the past three months as more business travellers used Britain”s largest domestic hotel chain, offsetting a decline in leisure stays
”Sustained demand from the corporate market has increased like for like occupancy on last year to 82.7%,” said chief executive of parent group Whitbread, Alan Parker.
The price of a room also increased, helping sales grow like-for-like by 10.5% in the three months to the end of November.
Whitbread has added more than 3,000 rooms to the chain this year - the group opening its 500th hotel, in Bournemouth, last month - bringing the total to 35,000, constituting 5% of the UK market.
Premier Inn accounts for almost three-quarters of Whitbread”s operating profits ” whose other brands include Crowne Plaza Holiday Inn, Express and Intercontinental - and the group plans to add a further 10,000 rooms by 2011.
It also promises a ”major marketing campaign” in the coming spring since the word ”Travel” was dropped from its Premier Travel Inn logo in July ” at a cost of ”22m (”30.5m).
”From in-depth research of the UK hotel market we are confident that there is a substantial opportunity for the long-term development of Premier Inn,” said Parker.
A report just released by Melvin Gold Consulting predicts a budget hotel will be built, opened or converted every three working days for the next 20 years, with the sector growing ten times the rate of the rest of the industry. Currently accounting for 12% of the market, it will treble by 2027 to represent 26%.
Grant Hearn, CEO of Travelodge ” which commissioned the report - said: "Budget hotels are successfully taking the hotel industry into the mass market like Ryanair has managed to do in its sector."
”Our ration of leisure-to-business guests is currently around 70-30, but when you look at the economy and the credit crunch, businesses are effected by that and budget hotels are recession-resilient really,” said a Travelodge spokeswoman.
”Business travellers still need to travel and they”ll be looking for more cost-effective ways of doing that, so budget hotels are set to boom.”
Travelodge itself plans to open a UK hotel every eight working days, having launched 35 this year, and aims to be the biggest budget operator in London by the 2012 Olympics with more than 7,000 rooms in the capital.
”Business travellers want a comfortable bed as close as possible to their meeting, so we”re looking at more city centre locations and getting closer to airports.
All rooms in hotels opened since September feature flat-screen TVs, WiFi and mood lighting, and bar and caf” designs have been revamped.
”Guests have a nice environment to have a working meal, or to meet colleagues for a drink,” said the spokeswoman.”Basically we try give business owners low-cost rooms to reduce their expenses, and give the travellers everything they need for a good night”s stay.”