| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Hospitality |
| Founded | 1987 |
| Headquarters | Luton, United Kingdom |
| Area served | United Kingdom United Arab Emirates Republic of Ireland India |
| Parent | Whitbread |
| Website | http://www.premierinn.com |
Premier Inn is the UK's largest hotel brand, with over 40,500 rooms and more than 600 hotels. Originally opening under the "Travel Inn" brand name in 1987, it has been owned by Whitbread during its entire operation and was set up to compete with the Travelodge brand which was at the time owned by Forte. The company provides 70% of the total earnings of Whitbread.[1]
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The chain started trading in 1987 as 'Travel Inn'. In 2004, Whitbread acquired another hotel chain, Premier Lodge for £505 million.[2] This added an additional 141 hotels to the existing portfolio and Whitbread re-branded every hotel as "Premier Travel Inn", which was shortened to "Premier Inn" later in 2007.[3]
Hotels are found either in city centres or on the outskirts on major A-roads. Unlike its competitor Travelodge, they are rarely found in motorway service areas, concentrating on locations where they are allowed to serve alcohol. Ownership by Whitbread, historically a brewery, but now a pub and hotel chain, ensures that all Premier Inns, with the exception of motorside locations, have a pub/restaurant on-site serving alcohol. Most sites are accompanied by a Whitbread brand chain restaurant of Table Table, Brewers Fayre, Beefeater or Taybarns. The majority of the other hotels provide food and refreshments with an in-house restaurant or an external partner restaurant located nearby. The Premier Inn chain can be found from Elgin in the north of Scotland to Helston, Cornwall in the south. Recently, newer inner city Premier Inns incorporate a brand of restaurants known as Thyme currently being trialed by Whitbread and if successful will be rolled out to all Premier Inns with internal restaurants.
Most Premier Inn hotels are new-build, although many of the chain's inner city locations in the UK are housed within redeveloped office buildings which would otherwise have faced demolition.
The chain has expanded overseas to open a hotel in Dubai and India[4] and the Persian Gulf.
In October 2010 all Premier Inn hotels located at Roadchef Motorway Service Stations were transferred to rival budget hotel chain Days Inn.
In 2006 Premier Inn announced a four-year UK expansion programme with a target of 45,000 rooms by 2010.
In September 2007, Whitbread announced the purchase of Golden Tulip UK including six hotels trading in the UK under the Tulip Inn and Golden Tulip brands and a secured pipeline of nine further sites for £44m. The hotels will all be re-branded and integrated into Premier Inn portfolio, and the acquisition gives the brand its first site in the Republic of Ireland at Dublin Airport.
In April 2008, Whitbread announced a £100 million expansion of its Premier Inn hotel chain in London over the next three years.[5]
In 2006, Premier Inn announced that it has entered into a joint venture agreement with Emirates Group to launch the UK’s leading budget hotel brand in the Gulf region. This is the first move to expand the brand beyond the UK. The joint venture has initially identified three sites in Dubai to build Premier Inn hotels, creating more than 800 new rooms for business and leisure travellers seeking high quality budget hotel accommodation. Room rates are expected to be in the region of £50 or AED 400. The first Premier Inn in Dubai to open was a 300-room hotel at Dubai Investment Park. A similar size hotel at Dubai Airport, and a 220-room hotel at Dubai Silicon Oasis on Emirates Road, were also opened.
In 2007, Premier Inn announced that it has entered into a 50:50 joint venture agreement with Emaar-MGF – one of India’s leading real estate developers, to develop the UK’s largest budget hotel brand, Premier Inn, in India. This will be Premier Inn’s third international market following the joint venture with Emirates announced in 2006.
A total equity investment of up to £300m will be invested in the joint venture over the next 10 years of which Whitbread's share will be 50%. Over the 10 year period the venture will create some 80 hotels and over 12,000 rooms for business and leisure travellers seeking high quality branded budget hotel accommodation. The initial sites are targeted in the Delhi Region (National Capital Region), Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad and Chandigarh.
Premier Inn was the first major budget hotel chain in the UK to invest in prime time television advertising, using comedian Lenny Henry as the face of its campaign.
In May 2011, BBC Watchdog criticised its widely advertised £29 promotion, having received complaints from viewers that it was almost impossible to book for that price, due to very low quotas of promotional rooms being allocated. Premier Inn stated that this was due to its rooms being "popular". [6]
The Premier Inn website has won a number of awards including ‘Best Online retailer’ at the 2006 Revolution Awards and ‘Best Consumer Website’ award at the 2005 British Interactive Media Associations Awards (BIMA).
Premier Inn has won a number of awards including, most recently, ‘Best Business Hotel Brand (over 50 sites)’ in the 2008 Business Travel Awards, ‘Best Family Travel Facilities' in the 2007 Parent Friendly Awards and ‘Innovation in Sales’ at the 2007 National Sales Awards. Premier Inn was also awarded the ‘Most Improved Hotel Brand of the Year’ in the 2006 and 2007 BDRC UK Hotel Guest Survey.
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