Premier Inn is planning to increase prices at selected hotels to help mitigate the rise in costs from the introduction of the National Living Wage.
Whitbread, the group that owns the hotel giant, said it will also cut costs and increase productivity as it prepares for the wage increase which will be introduced from April for workers over 25.
“We are developing plans to adopt the recently announced National Living Wage,” said Whitbread CEO Andy Harrison. “We shall mitigate this substantial cost increase over time with a combination of productivity improvements, boosted by investment in systems and training, efficiency savings and some selective price increases.”
Harrison added that further information on any price rises will be announced in its interim results published on October 20 2015.
The announcement comes as Premier Inn saw total sales rise by 11.6 per cent in the three months to August 13. RevPar grew by 3.9 per cent compared to the same period last year with occupancy remaining high at 87 per cent.
Premier Inn said the results were helped by a strong performance in London, where sales grew 21.1 per cent over the past three months.
Harrison said: “Our first half performance keeps us on track to deliver full year expectations, as well as our ambitious growth milestones.”
In February, Premier Inn announced it was rolling out free wifi to every guest in all of its UK properties.