Premier Inn Sees Upsides for Itself With Economic Headwinds
Photo Caption: Characters in a 2022 TV ad for Premier Inn. Source: Whitbread.
Skift Take
Premier Inn expects to gain market share as rising energy and labor bills prompt many independent hotel owners to throw in the towel. Sad news for the industry, but good news for parent company Whitbread.
Inflation and an energy crisis in Europe present opportunities, not just problems, for Whitbread, the owner of the Premier Inn brand. The company expects rising economic strains to pressure travelers into favoring its budget hotels over pricier rivals. It also expects economic headwinds will prompt many independent hoteliers to sell properties at a higher-than-usual pace.
Europe's independent hotel sector contracted by around 12 percent between 2010 and 2019, Whitbread estimated. Today's rising bills for energy and workers' wages — coming after the strains of two years of pandemic-related restrictions — will lead to a rising rate of independent hoteliers selling their properties, the company's executives predicted.
"Even for those independents that have come through the pandemic, fresh operational challenges created by labor
