Budget hotels dominate list of top 20 hotel companies

Budget hotels are increasingly becoming a dominant force, with the largest two companies in the sector accounting for nearly half of all properties listed in the top 20 hotel companies.

Premier Inn, operated by Whitbread, and Travelodge, has a total of 1,162 hotels, according to figures from HotelAnalyst, which are highlighted in Hotel Britain 2015, a new report on the performance of UK hotels published today by business advisory firm BDO.

Taken together, the 659 Premier Inn and 503 Travelodge properties account for 48% of the total number of hotels within the top 20 companies ranked by room number, up 12.5% from last year's figures.

However, the challenge of producing up-to-date reports is brought into the focus by the fact that these figures have already changed. Premier Inn today has more than 690 hotels with around 58,000 bedrooms and Travelodge has 501 hotels (36,813 bedrooms).

While Premier Inn and Travelodge are by far and away the largest hotel brands in the UK, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is the second largest hotel company by room number behind Whitbread and ahead of Travelodge, with a total of 287 hotels and 39,319 bedrooms. IHG is represented by six brands in the UK which included InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Staybridge Suites, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express.

A busy year for acquisitions has resulted in Starwood Capital and KSL entering the top 20 list of hotels for the first time. In the past 18 months Starwood has acquired Principal Hayley for £365m, De Vere Venues for £231m and Four pillars for around £90, while KSL has added the Malmaison and Hotel du Vin to the Belfry hotel, near Birmingham.

Other companies which have shown significant growth include Britannia, which has added six hotels since 2012 and QHotels, which last year added the six-strong De Vere Hotels portfolio.

With a current buoyant hotel transaction market in play, the table is likely to look very different next year: KSL is believed to be close to offloading both Malmaison and Hotel du Vin.