UK hotel group Whitbread has made a strategic acquisition of two provincial city hotels, exploiting a conversion opportunity to grow its portfolio.

Existing hotels in Bristol and Plymouth, which have to date operated as part of the Future Inns portfolio, will now become Premier Inn hotels. The pair will, in short order, add 292 rooms to the company’s UK portfolio, which currently stands at more than 86,000 rooms across the UK and Ireland, under its Premier Inn and Hub by Premier Inn brands.

Expansion Meets Contraction

Future Inns is a Canadian brand, which in 2005 launched in the UK with an opening in Cardiff. Sites Plymouth followed in 2006, with Bristol opening in 2009, while the family owned company clearly had aspirations to grow further in the UK market. For now, it is retrenching to its single Welsh site, explained Del Brett, Managing Director of Future Inns, UK: “It has been an important milestone for our company to sell our Plymouth and Bristol properties to Whitbread this year. Our company is transitioning at this time to the operation of our 197-bedroom original UK property in Cardiff Bay, which will continue to trade for the foreseeable future as Future Inn.”

The hotels will undergo refurbishment, with just over half of the rooms being available for booking from early November, and the refit completed by mid December. “Acquiring the two trading hotels from Future Inns shows how flexible we can be to bring new locations into our secured pipeline,” commented Alex Flach, UK & Ireland development director for Whitbread. “The hotels will strengthen our network in Plymouth and Bristol, two markets we see strong long-term demand and want to grow further.”

New developments continue to be the main way for Whitbread to expand its portfolio, both in the UK and Ireland, and in Germany, where the Premier Inn brand is growing fast. In the UK, its compact format Hub by Premier Inn, designed specifically for city centres, is currently developing two sites in London. The Hub by Premier Inn 5 Strand London will be the brand’s largest site to date, a 693 room new build just off the UK capital’s landmark Trafalgar Square. It will open in late 2028.

Also in the works in London is a Hub at Victory House Kingsway. This will be a 200 room hotel, reusing a redundant office building. The conversion, typically delivered faster than a new build, will open in early 2028.

Developing the German Business

In Germany, Whitbread is maintaining a strong opening pace. It recently launched Premier Inn Halle, its 75th hotel opened in the country. Its current construction programme includes two hotels each in Berlin and Hamburg: Premier Inn Berlin City Spittelmarkt, and Premier Inn Berlin-Lichenberg. Meanwhile, in Hamburg there is Premier Inn Hamburg Central and Premier Inn Finkenwerderm, between them adding 465 rooms in the city.

The portfolio is also expanding outside the major cities. Premier Inn Eshborn recently opened, while hotels in Kassel, Magdeburg, Freiburg and Potsdam are under construction.