Whitbread, the owner of the Premier Inn and hub by Premier Inn hotel brands, has opened the doors of its newest hub by Premier Inn ‘compact’ hotel at St Swithins Lane, Bank in the heart of the City of London.
The 61-bedroom hotel is the eighth hub hotel to open in London Zones 1 and 2 and takes the brand to eleven sites, and more than 1,565 hub rooms, across the country.
Developed in-house by Whitbread on the site of a former bank building, the hub by Premier Inn at Bank is in an enviable position two minutes’ walk from Bank Underground station and connections via four London underground lines.
Alex Flach, UK Development Director for Whitbread, said: “hub by Premier Inn has huge potential. The brand is very popular with our customers and enables us to gain a presence in the most central and connected locations. The latest opening at Bank is indicative of the quality locations we want for hub and how flexible we can be to acquire and develop the best sites. We’re actively looking for new opportunities to grow the brand.”
Whitbread’s hub by Premier Inn hotels are designed to offer smart, stylish and good value accommodation in the most central and connected locations. The brand features hotels with ‘compact’ bedrooms, enhanced by useful technology such as Smart TV’s and clever lighting. The hotel ‘Lounge’ offers through-the-day light touch dining in a modern space, with a quality bar offering.
Since launching the brand in 2013 Whitbread has expanded the brand to eight hub by Premier Inn hotels in Zones 1 and 2 in Central London and three hub hotels in Edinburgh.
A further six hub hotels (more than 975 rooms in total) are either on-site, in planning or in the secured development pipeline in London including at Quaker Street in Shoreditch, Farringdon Road, Berwick Street in Soho and adjacent to West Brompton underground station.
In February Whitbread announced it was seeking to expand the hub by Premier Inn brand beyond London and Edinburgh and into key cities across the UK and Republic of Ireland, as it grows Premier Inn and hub by Premier Inn to 110,000 bedrooms in the two markets.
The opening of hub by Premier Inn Bank is a further example of the continuing trend towards compact hotels in UK cities. According to research by Lambert Smith Hampton, the property consultancy, one in five of all hotel rooms opened in 2018 were for ‘compact’ hotels with London being a particular hotspot.
Whitbread’s owns and leases the hub by Premier Inn hotels in its estate. The 61-bedroom hub Bank hotel is owned freehold by Whitbread and employs 19 new team members.
The business is scheduling to open two further hub by Premier Inn hotels in London by spring 2020 – an 89-bedroom hotel adjacent to West Brompton underground station and a 110 bedroom hub by Premier Inn hotel at Berwick Street in Soho.
