Whitbread strengthens national maintenance team


Whitbread, the parent company to Premier Inn and hub by Premier Inn, has expanded its national team of maintenance managers as it continues to invest in the upkeep of its network of affordable hotels and restaurants across the UK and Ireland.

A team of thirteen in-house maintenance managers will now oversee the maintenance of more than 82,000 Premier Inn and hub by Premier Inn hotel bedrooms and 440 restaurants across the UK and Ireland, working closely with Whitbread’s contractor teams.

The changes include the appointment of five new regional maintenance managers as well as three internal promotions to regional and senior maintenance manager roles.

Simon Hobbs, Estates Director at Whitbread, noted, “Our objective as a business is to create a consistently high-quality and affordable network of hotels for our guests. To do so we need a team of dedicated, skilled, and motivated maintenance managers to ensure our hotels and restaurants are looking good and living up to the expectations of our customers.

“With a growing network of over 840 hotels and 440 restaurants in the UK and Ireland, it is the right time to be expanding our maintenance team and investing in our people to drive the high guest scores our brands are known for, especially given the consistently high occupancy rates we are experiencing currently.

“I’m looking forward to working alongside new colleagues and seeing many existing ones progress their careers with Whitbread.”

The new appointments to Whitbread’s team of regional maintenance managers include:
> Gary Everett, who will oversee the maintenance of Premier Inn hotels and restaurants in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, and Somerset.

> Oliver Wentworth, who joins Whitbread to oversee the maintenance of its hotel and restaurant estate in the south of England.

> Damon Webb, who joins the business with many years’ experience supporting corporate occupiers at CBRE will oversee the maintenance of Premier Inn hotels and restaurants in central and southern Wales.

> Jo Darby, who is returning to Whitbread to manage the upkeep of Premier Inn hotels in the Midlands & north Wales. 

> Stuart Patterson, who joins from a regional contractor business will manage the estate maintenance in London and regions.

Internal promotions in the team include: the promotion of Daniel Jones and Joel Walters to Senior Regional Repairs & Maintenance Manager positions; and the appointment of Matt Tyson into a Regional Maintenance Manager role.

Brian Steere, National Maintenance Manager, and Huw Thomas, Head of Repairs and Maintenance, will continue to lead Whitbread’s Repair and Maintenance team reporting to Simon Hobbs as Estates Director.