Premier Inn owner Whitbread sees tourist demand as hotels reopen
Premier Inn owner Whitbread this morning reported good demand for bookings in traditional tourism destinations as it revealed that sales dropped 79.4 per cent in the first quarter of the year.
Whitbread said it has reopened more than 270 UK hotels and is preparing to open the majority of its estate by the end of July. All of the operators’ hotels in Germany have already reopened.
The company reported good demand for bookings in “traditional regional tourist destinations” over the summer months.
However it warned that demand was “subdued” in cities, including London, and other regions. The company’s share price fell more than four per cent this morning.
Whitbread chief executive Alison Brittain said: “It is still very early days and therefore too early to draw any conclusions from our booking trajectory, especially as there has been volatility in hotel performance in other countries that relaxed controls before the UK.
“However, in traditional regional tourist destinations, we are seeing good demand for the summer months, whilst the rest of the regions and metropolitan areas, including London, remain subdued.”
She added: “As expected, our first quarter performance reflects the impact of the closure of our hotel and restaurant operations, in both the UK and Germany, at the end of March.”
Whitbread, which also owns Beefeater and pub chain Brewers Fayre, tapped investors for £1bn last month to help it “withstand a long period of low revenues”.
Announcing the rights issue in May, Whitbread said it would help strengthen its balance sheet as the firm expected £80m of cash outflows a month while its sites were closed.