Hotel Bookings At Whitbread slow

　　The rapid growth in demand for cheap hotel rooms in the UK is showing signs of slowing as hard-pressed consumers cancel weekend breaks.

　　Whitbread said like-for-like sales shrank in the 11 weeks to February 16 at Premier Inn, its budget hotel chain, as demand outside London softened.

　　“Consumers are still under pressure with falling disposable incomes,” said Andy Harrison, Whitbread chief executive. “The market in the provinces is down a few points, and we are more reliant on the provinces [than London].”

　　Like-for-like sales at Premier Inn fell 0.9 per cent in the 11 weeks to February 16, compared with the same period a year ago. Over the past 50 weeks, however, sales rose 3.4 per cent and total sales, which take into account new openings, were also up.

　　Revenue per room – an industry sales measure known as “revpar” – was down by 3 per cent compared with the same period last year.

　　Whitbread last year announced plans to increase the number of Premier Inn rooms in the UK by almost 50 per cent and double global sales at Costa Coffee, its coffee chain, by 2015-16.

　　Premier Inn is expecting only a minor boost from this summer’s London Olympics, as just 15-20 of its 620-strong UK hotel estate are located close to the Stratford site. At Costa Coffee, like-for-like sales rose 6.2 per cent in the 11-week period, buoyed by strong sales over the festive period.

　　At Whitbread’s restaurants division, which includes Beefeater, Brewers Fayre and Taybarns, like-for-like revenues rose 2.2 per cent in the same period.

　　James Cooke at Panmure Gordon attributed the increase in restaurant sales to price cuts and easier comparatives from December 2010.

　　“We think consensus expectations of £337m pre-tax profit for the 2013-full-year will come under downward pressure and we reduce our forecast by about 5 per cent to £329m,” he said. Shares in Whitbread fell 11p to £17.09.