LONDON—To support its development goals, Premier Inn is rolling out a format for smaller hotels.
Whitbread PLC, owner of Premier Inn, is looking for new ways to grow the brand. The “mini solus” prototype features automated check-in kiosks, smaller public space and 60 to 80 guestrooms. The first hotel with this format opened in April in Stratford-upon-Avon.
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Premier Inn's "mini solus" prototype features automated check-in kiosks, smaller public space, and 60 to 80 rooms.
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“These changes have allowed us to sign up for new hotels as part of large mixed-use developments, and over high street stores,” Mark Anderson, property and commercial director, Whitbread Hotels & Restaurants, wrote via email.
Whitbread plans to add approximately 4,000 rooms this year and approximately 65,000 rooms during the next five years. The plans were announced during its fiscal-year results release in April.
• Read “Whitbread reports fiscal year results.”
“We continually review the design of our new hotels to ensure that we are providing our guests with what they need and where they need it, whilst also maximising return on investment,” Anderson said. “In some of our new Premier Inn sites, this has led to us redesigning areas in the building to improve the way that we maximise and utilise available space. We have managed to gain efficiencies in the space used, especially in the reception area where self check-in kiosks ensure our guests can get to their rooms within minutes of arriving.”
Premier Inn has a pipeline of six more of these developments, including a recently acquired property in Leamington Spa at the end of the High Street.
The automated check-in kiosks are currently in use in 33 hotels and will be installed in all new build “solus” hotels, according to Whitbread’s earnings release.