Executives at Whitbread PLC, parent company of the Premier Inn brand, are confident the worst of the pandemic’s ravages are over, with forward bookings showing strong trends in United Kingdom tourism destinations and across the company's broader base.

Speaking on an analyst call related to the 13 weeks of trading up to May 27, CEO Alison Brittain said those strong forward-booking trends in tourism destinations point to a good summer, with the exception of hotels at airports and in Central London.

She said recovery is being seen in its “broader portfolio, not just coastal locations. … The U.K. portfolio [is] seeing total accommodation sales performance 11% above that of the overall market.”

Ninety-eight percent of the company's U.K. hotel portfolio is open, while in its second market, Germany, 19 of its current trading portfolio of 30 hotels are open.

Performance metrics for the quarter were down compared to figures in 2019, with rooms revenue seeing a drop of 60.9% and food and beverage revenue down 86%.

Whitbread officials blamed continued government restrictions for those drops, although Nicholas Cadbury, group finance director, said rules barring international outbound travel have boosted demand for U.K staycations.

On June 15, the U.K. government delayed the full ending of all restrictions from 21 June for a further four weeks.

As bookings improve, so do openings, Brittain said.

“A lot of things slowed down last year, with our openings lower than in many previous years. Some of those were delays at our behest if the development was in our control.

She noted her company remains the leader for unit growth.

“Historically, we have always opened the largest number of rooms in our sector [in the U.K.],” Brittain said.

She said she has higher confidence for the projects that remain in the company's pipeline.

“We had a good scrub of our pipeline last year. We reviewed all our pipeline, our [master development plans]. We have seen good returns across that pipeline, mostly overflow from last year coming into this year,” Brittain said.

Brittain said the strength of domestic leisure demand was evident before the recent announcement.

She said the firm generally is not seeing instant reactions whenever new rules are put in place.

“We did see a rebound with the first, when there was announced a low number of green destinations [not requiring U.K. travelers to undergo quarantine and testing], but not with the second, when Portugal was taken off.

This summer "looks to be one of enhanced staycations. I am sure that is the case, but we do not see an instant reaction whenever an announcement is made,” she said.

Cadbury added the firm’s £100 million ($139.5 million), three-year cost efficiency program is in operation and that at the end of the quarter, net debt had fallen to £70.6 million ($98.5 million), which has been aided by summer 2021 bookings’ revenue.

She added London and airports were the two hardest-hit areas.

“They are still being tough, but we are pretty pleased in how robust the recovery has been across our estate, small, medium and large. To get to the levels of occupancy we needed, [recovery] needed to be broad,” she said.

She added the firm sees opportunities to grow business demand, although that's not its primary segment.

“Demand in London is business, white-collar and international, and we have not historically played on this inbound market. Currently, there is not the thrust of demand in London, and it looks like we will not see that until autumn,” Brittain said, who also added the latest four-week delay also has seen companies continuing to advise employees to work from home.

“We’re working hard with [travel management companies] as this is a market untapped for us, a big opportunity. Now, we’re seeing relatively low level of sales, but we have used the last year to build up those relationships,” Cadbury said of these new business lines.

Average occupancy across the period was 42.2%, average daily rate £40.94 ($57.12) and revenue per available room £17.30 ($24.14), down from the same period in 2019 by 62.4%.

In Q1, three hotels were added to the German pipeline, to take the open and committed pipeline to 73 hotels and more than 13,500 rooms , while it opened 10 hotels in the U.K.

As of press time, Whitbread’s stock was trading on the London Stock Exchange at £33.79 ($47.15) per share, a 11.2% increase since the start of the year.