UK's Premier Inns to invest in German hotels

The UK hotel chain Premier Inns, which claims with 670 hotels and 53,000 rooms to be the biggest hotel chain in Britain, is planning to enter the German market. The move will involve not just coming into the market as an operator, but also as an active investor and property manager – in fact, any hotels opened will be in company-owned properties, the chain said.

According to Mark Anderson, head of property investment at Premier Inns' parent company Whitbread, "We've been observing the German market intensively for several years now, and we see a lot of opportunities there. This fits in with our real estate strategy, and we want to invest in German real estate." He said at the recent Expo REAL in Munich.

The plan is to buy development plots and develop them themselves, says Anderson, although the group might also engage project developers. This would fit with the UK strategy, where 75% of the Premier Inn hotels are company-owned, while the company's financial position is strong, with profits of £300m on turnover of about £1bn.

The company plans to spend the next twelve months researching the market intensively both for locations and also for adapting its hotel brand to the needs of the German budget hotel. segment.

Locations being sought are plots in downtown locations with building capacity of 4,500 to 10,000 sqm of lettable space. located near train stations or office parks, and preferably in the 50 German cities that have more than 350,000 overnight visitor stays (the corresponding number of cities or towns in the UK is seven). Specialist hotel consultancy group Christie & Co. is helping Premier Inns with the planned German rollout.