’hub by Premier Inn’
PREMIER INN today announces the launch of a new hotel concept that boasts the UK’s most space-efficient and digitally savvy rooms. ‘hub by Premier Inn’ will have ingenious storage solutions in every nook and cranny and state of the art digital technology – for “guests who value location, price and design over space”.
Each ‘hub by Premier Inn’ room is kitted out with an en suite bathroom with power shower, wardrobe, desk, Hypnos pocket-sprung bed, free Wi-Fi and a 40” inch smart screen TV – all neatly fitted into just 11.4 metres squared.
It will also be the UK’s first hotel where the rooms can be remote controlled using a smart phone app. Guests will be able to check in online and control the room’s lighting, temperature and even what will be on the TV or radio when they arrive.
Each hotel will have its own deli-style restaurant serving local produce and guests will be able to pre-order breakfast using the ‘hub’ app.
Patrick Dempsey, Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants Managing Director, said: “hub is all about giving customers more choice. It will provide great quality, contemporary room design in the heart of a major city at an outstanding price. With space at a premium, each aspect of the design has been aimed at optimising every single centimeter of space from the desk that folds up and disappears into the bed to a convenient under the bed space for luggage.”
The new brand will target major UK city centres and the first hub will open in London’s West End next summer. Rooms will be, on average, up to 30% cheaper than a comparable Premier Inn in Central London, at under £100 a night mid-week, whilst starting and off peak prices will be less.
’hub by Premier Inn’ has been trialled since last June at the Premier Inn Kings Cross after five prototype rooms were created with 1,825 guests staying in them to date.
Mr. Dempsey added: “Premier Inn has played a leading role in shaping the budget hotel market and we believe ‘hub’ will do the same for a new generation of compact city centre hotels. It will appeal to customers who value price, location and design over space.”
Whitbread has plans for five ‘hub by Premier Inn’ hotels (c.1,000 rooms) to open in the next three years and is targeting to have around 40 ‘hub by Premier Inn’ hotels (c. 6,000 rooms) opened or in the pipeline by 2018.
Andy Harrison, CEO, Whitbread PLC said, “Premier Inn is the UK’s fastest growing hotel chain and this year we will open 40 Premier Inn hotels, creating over 1,000 jobs. ‘hub by Premier Inn’ gives us another exciting new growth platform and we are confident it will deliver good returns for our shareholders and prove a hit with customers.”
