Premier Travel Inn (PTI), the UK's largest hotel chain is looking for further international expansion if its Middle East venture succeeds.
The chain, owned by Whitbread, launched a joint venture with Emirates in April to build properties with about 4,000 rooms in the Gulf region over the next four or five years.
Patrick Dempsey, managing director of PTI, said that Daroch Crawford, previously operations manager for the PTI restaurant business in the UK, had transferred to Dubai as the managing director of the Gulf project.
Mr Dempsey said the first three projects were under way including a 301-room property in the Dubai Investment Park and at two other locations where the land was now being bought.
He said there were already another had five or six properties in the pipeline in Dubai, Oman and Abu Dhabi with probably another five or six to follow. These all would provide up to 1,500 rooms.
"We are also assessing other markets to see where else we can take PTI. We think it's a brand that is transferable.
"But we don't want to go into a market with three to four hotels. We would want a critical mass and a place where other budget hotels are not well known.
"When we went into the Gulf, there was only one, an Ibis."
Mr Dempsey said he expected the Gulf properties to attract the same mix of business and leisure travellers as did the UK properties.
He said PTI was also expanding its properties in the UK to provide an extra 15,000 on top of the current 31,000 in the next four years.
Expansion would be through new properties next to its restaurants, extension of existing properties, new builds and acquisitions.
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