Staycation hopes

PREMIER Inn’s parent firm is poised to benefit from a staycation boom after strong sales at its hotels offset slowing growth at its Costa coffee chain.

Whitbread chief executive Alison Brittain said it had yet to see the full impact of the fall in the pound following the EU referendum vote, which has made travel to the UK cheaper and holidays abroad more expen- sive. She said that while the number of tourists coming to the UK was up, there was ‘still more to come’ and that sales would lift as Britons realised the rising costs of holidaying abroad.

Shares soared 3.4pc, or 131p, to 3984p.

The firm plans to open 4,200 hotel rooms, 250 Costa stores and install about 1,250 Costa Express machines this financial year.