UK has registered a revival in hotel bookings for conventional regional tourist destinations as people have started planning summer trips to the seaside and countryside, stated Premier Inn owner.
The Chief Executive of Whitbread, Alison Brittain, has stated that larger cities like London continue to witness a subdued demand in hotel bookings. He has further stated that it is too early to draw any conclusions from the booking trajectory by simply looking at the initial returning days. The performance of the company’s hotels has witnessed a volatility in countries where hotels were allowed to be reopened a bit earlier than in the UK, added Brittain.
Sources state that Whitbread has, so far, reopened over 270 hotels in Northern Ireland and England, out of its total 821 establishments across the UK. The company has planned to open majority of its hotels by the end of this month. Premier Inns has planned to reopen its hotels in Wales from July 13 and in Scotland from July 15. Premium Inn’s seaside locations comprise popular holiday destinations such as Blackpool, Brighton, and Newquay.
During the lockdown, Whitbread had kept 39 of its UK hotels open for providing accommodation to NHS staff and other key workers. Brittain has added that this experience of safely and successfully operating hotels in a socially distanced environment provided basic learning to the company further allowing it to deliver the highest standards to its customers as it reopens the rest of its hotels.
Whitbread’s revenue had fallen by 80 per cent during the first quarter of the year following the closure of majority of its restaurants and hotels during the lockdown period. In May, the company had reportedly raised an amount of £1 billion from its shareholders to shore up its revenues, after burning through £80 million of cash a month as most of its income had dried up during the coronavirus crisis.
Source Credits:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/07/uk-hotel-bookings-covid-19-premier-inn-whitbread