Hotel boss in favour of Covid passports

THE CEO of Premier Inn’s owner, Whitbread, is in favour of Covid passports for helping major sporting and music events to reopen.

Alison Brittain also explained that a full-scale recovery for her business, which took a £1bn loss in the year of Covid, will not happen until lockdown restrictions ease.

She said: “I do like the idea of passports for large sporting events... If that is the only way we can get those events back by having a safe environment in that way then I’m all for it. It’s quite hard to just do a socially distanced way of managing a big pop concert or sporting event.

“So, that’s an area I would be very pro the passporting arrangements in order to have those events return for those industries that have been incredibly badly hit through the pandemic, but then also through all the add-on places like hotels and restaurants that support them.”

Speaking after publishing the firm’s annual results, Ms Brittain said the hotel sector will also struggle while venues remain closed and large weddings are on hold.

She explained: “Family events, sporting events, pop concerts – we will need to see a resurgence in demand for them and for that we need to be out of lockdown.”

But she remained hopeful and explained that the 15% of Premier Inn’s hotels based in UK holiday hotspots are practically full as families plan staycations again this summer.

She said: “Booking patterns are strong for the school holiday periods. We’ve got very strong bookings into anything that’s coastal; historic centres, mountains – anything with a view, frankly.”

Festival-goers are also thinking ahead, she explained, with bookings for rooms for the Cheltenham racing in 2022 selling out within 48 hours of going live.

The CEO explained: “A lot of people are thinking ahead to things that they have missed out on doing during the pandemic.”

Premier Inn has a split of around 50% business and 50% leisure customers – with only around 10% of revenues coming from overseas tourists.

Ms Brittain said she hopes to see Premier Inn benefit from the proposed investment in new infrastructure projects announced by the government.

She said: “We’re expecting more investment-led activity in the UK... and we would expect to benefit from that... (but) the white-collar market is going to take quite some time to come back – if at all fully.”

To combat the expected fall, Premier Inn has launched relationships with travel management companies to get more bookings, she added.