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Whitbread is planning to add more than 2,200 hotel rooms across Outer London as part of an expansion of its Premier Inn and hub by Premier Inn brands.
The hotel group has identified 17 locations where it believes there is scope for new hotels, citing demand from leisure and business customers and a lack of recent openings in the area. No new Premier Inn hotels have opened in Outer London since 2022.
The proposed expansion will be led by acquisitions and development manager James Hall, who will be responsible for identifying sites and working with local councils, landowners and developers.
The 2,220 targeted bedrooms would be spread across locations including Peckham Rye, Canada Water, Surrey Quays, Acton, Greenford Station, Stockwell Station, Streatham, Silvertown and Stratford.
Other locations identified by the company include Abbey Wood, Beckenham, Clapham Junction, Finchley, Golders Green, Old Oak Common, Twickenham, Walthamstow, West Hampstead and Woodford Green.
Whitbread said the locations were identified using customer data showing where demand for additional Premier Inn rooms is strongest.
Hall said the company was seeking a range of development opportunities across the capital, including conversions and new-build schemes.
He said: “Each of London’s boroughs has its own distinct personality and feel, so it’s no wonder that the capital’s appeal to our leisure and business customers extends beyond the city centre.
“With a strong track record of delivering a wide variety of London sites – from office-to-hotel conversions like Dorset House by the Southbank to innovative developments like the subterranean hub by Premier Inn at The Brunswick Centre – we’re flexible in the opportunities we’re seeking.”
Whitbread currently operates more than 85,500 Premier Inn bedrooms across the UK and Ireland. It aims to increase that figure to 98,000 rooms open and trading by 2030, including 3,500 extension bedrooms on existing sites, and has a longer-term target of 125,000 bedrooms.
