Premier Inn lands in hospitality sector of India

There is a great reason for India to rejoice in this winter. The foremost and certainly internationally renowned British hotel chain Premier Inn has finally entered the domestic mid-market hospitality segment of India with the launch of its first hotel in Bangalore.

Terming the same as a major feat for the company, Premier Inn India Managing Director Aly Shariff told press and media at the launch, “There is a huge demand for cost-effective and quality rooms from both corporates and individual travelers.” As state by him, the 105-room-hotel offers facilities like a multi-cuisine restaurant, gyms, bar and conference halls and is mainly targeted at corporates from the IT industry.

It has to be mentioned that Premier Inn is part of the top British hotel and restaurant group Whitbread Plc. and plans to launch properties in New Delhi by late 2010 (142 rooms) and in Pune by early 2011 (125 rooms). There has been the confirmation of two other properties too.

“We also subsequently plan to look at other metros and tier-2 cities”, Aly said, adding the group would be investing around Rs 400 crore to develop these properties in the next three-five years. Together these five hotels would offer around 750 rooms. He said, the group would source this Rs 400 crore from equity markets in addition to through debts.

Premier Inn happens to be the largest hotel brand in the realm of UK, with in excess of 40,000 rooms and more than 590 hotels. Originally opened under the “Travel Inn” brand name in 1987, it has been owned by Whitbread during its entire operation and was set up to compete with the Travelodge brand which was at the time owned by Forte. At the moment, Premier Inn is in charge of operating 590 hotels with 40,000 rooms located in Britain and Dubai.