Operating profits for the UK's largest hotel business, budget chain Premier Travel Inn leapt by 47% to £109m for the year ending March 2005.
The owners, the UK hotel and leisure group Whitbread said sales for the chain has risen 41% from £230m to £323m.
Whitbread also reported that online bookings for the brand had risen to 31%.
The year saw the purchase of the rival Premier Lodge chain for £505m last July which was amalgamated with Whitbread's existing budget hotel chain Travel Inn to form Premier Travel Inn.
The chain now has 28,400 rooms in 452 hotels with plans to open a further 1,800 bedrooms in 2005-6.
Whitbread chief executive Alan Parker said the performance of Premier Travel Inn had been “particularly encouraging” with occupancy up from 80.2% to 81.2%, room rate up by 4.2% to £43.25 and room yield up 5.6% to £35.14.
Mr Parker said the policy of directing more bookings through the Internet, the chain was improving its efficiency and making it easier for guests to book.
“On average the Internet accounted for 31% of all our room reservations in 2004/5. The former Premier Lodge outlets experienced particularly strong growth with web bookings rising from 19% prior to acquisition to more than 30% by year-end,” he said.
On the Marriott brand, where Whitbread plans to sell off its properties, operating profits fell by 5.7% to £67.4m.
Mr Parker said “underlying” profit was flat as the market was “affected by the weakness of the US dollar, which appears to be stifling a full recovery of the North American business traveller market.”
He said the company expected to get £1bn over two years from the sale of the Marriott hotels through a joint adventure with Marriott International.
It has already disposed of its Swallow Hotels and sold 11 Courtyard by Marriott properties for £79m.