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* Hotel chain benefits from staycations
* 98% of more than 800 Premier Inn hotels open
* Opens 10 new hotels in the UK
* Shares top of UK's blue-chip index leader board
(adds details of new reopenings, shares, background)
By Vishwadha Chander
June 17 (Reuters) - Premier Inn-owner Whitbread said
hotel bookings in its tourist locations picked up in the run-up
to the summer season, lifting its shares even as Britain delayed
plans to ease pandemic restrictions.
The Dunstable-based company said it traded "significantly
ahead of the market", though total sales still fell 69.8% in the
13 weeks ended May 27 from pre-COVID-19 levels.
The shares rose 4% by 0739 GMT to be the best performers on
the FTSE 100 index.
"Our forward bookings continue to improve, benefiting from
the anticipated post-lockdown bounce in leisure demand, and a
continued gradual improvement in business bookings," Chief
Executive Officer Alison Britain said.
The rate of decline slowed in the period from May 17 to June
14, when overnight leisure stays were allowed, with total UK
accommodation sales during those weeks down just 27% from
pre-pandemic levels.
The travel and leisure sector is showing signs of recovery
as Britons have started booking domestic trips for the summer
holiday season rather than foreign trips
By May 17, the company said 98% of its more than 800 Premier
Inn hotels were open.
"A lack of air travel will push Britons to staycation at
coastal towns in the UK, where roughly 15% of the group’s hotels
are scattered," Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Laura Hoy said.
But with Britain now pushing back its plans to lift most
social restrictions to July 19, Whitbread said a full recovery
of leisure demand depended on the removal of remaining lockdown
measures.
The company opened 10 new hotels in the UK during the
quarter. There are signs of recovery in Germany, too, where 19
of Whitbread's 30 hotels had opened.
(Reporting by Vishwadha Chander and Muvija M in Bengaluru;
Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Elaine Hardcastle)
