The ongoing popularity of staycations in the United Kingdom continues to boost the country’s most prominent hotel brand.
Alison Brittain, CEO at Whitbread PLC, which owns Premier Inn, said the company is outperforming its competitive set. Further, sales revenue has exceeded Whitbread executives’ expectations for the first three months of its current trading year.
Speaking on Whitbread’s first quarter earnings results conference call, Brittain said hotel occupancy, revenue and bookings bode well for the remainder of 2022. Whitbread’s portfolio of more than 820 hotels and 80,000 rooms are already 40% booked for the next quarter through the summer.
In year-over-year terms, Whitbread’s first quarter accommodation revenue was 31% ahead of pre-pandemic numbers across its entire portfolio and 21.3% ahead of pre-pandemic numbers in the U.K., said Chief Financial Officer Hemant Patel.
For the next full-year trading cycle, Whitbread executives expect continued outperformance compared with…