Executives at Premier Inn, the United Kingdom’s largest hotel brand by hotel count, said that its business on the books has been significantly boosted by Taylor Swift’s upcoming U.K. concert schedule.
It is the first mention by a U.K. hotel company of the push provided by the superstar American musician, whose Eras Tour began in March 2023 and is due to end in November 2024.
Swift's 17 British and Irish concert dates will range across June and August 2024 in Cardiff, Dublin, Edinburgh, Liverpool and London.
On a call to report the company's latest earnings results, Dominic Paul, CEO of Premier Inn’s parent company Whitbread PLC, said its hotel bookings ramped up when the U.K. dates of the Swift tour were announced.
“We all love Taylor Swift, don’t we? There are a high number of concerts in the U.K., and when they were announced, our hotels sold out very quickly, in minutes, not hours.
“We have a number of hotels relatively close to where the concerts are being held,” Paul said.
The effect of Swift’s concerts on hotel performance in the U.S. has been well-chronicled.
Market Dominance
Premier Inn has more than 880 hotels, the majority in the U.K., and more than 83,500 rooms, with approximately 7,000 rooms in its pipeline.
The brand's stated goal is to have 125,000 hotel rooms.
Paul said Whitbread is continuing to take advantage of Premier Inn's scale, which is leading to robust performance.
For the 13 weeks ending Nov. 30, 2023, Whitbread reported revenue per available room across its portfolio was up 9% year over year and up 39% compared to full-year 2020.
In its second market, Germany, the firm has 58 open hotels and another 34 in the pipeline.
“We are learning on how to trade effectively in Germany, and our relative performance is getting better, which is really encouraging,” Paul said.
In an earnings release, he said that “in Germany, [Whitbread] performed well in what is an important trading period with a large number of leisure and business events; we remain on course to break-even on a run-rate basis during calendar year 2024.”
Paul said that across Premier Inn's entire portfolio, the next quarter looks to be strong, too.
“We are confident in our outlook. … Independent hotels will not rebound for another five years, which gives us more opportunity,” he said, indicating that struggling independent hotels represent an opportunity to acquire and convert those properties to the Premier Inn brand.
The firm's hotels also performed well through the holidays, he said.
“We had good trading in our hotels and [food and beverage]. This coming year, we are booked ahead of where we were this time last year. You might ask why that would be in these challenging times, and I feel it is the great value for money we offer,” he added.
Total accommodation sales were up for the period by 11% year over year. In Germany, sales were up 47%, reflecting that portfolio’s maturity.
Whitbread is approximately 75% through its £300 million ($382 million) share buyback program, with close to 6.8 million shares valued at £226 million having been repurchased.
As of publication time, Whitbread PLC stock was trading at £36.52 a share, an increase of 28.6% year over year. The London Stock Exchange’s FTSE 100 index was up 25.4% over the same period.