Budget hotel chain Premier Inn is set for further expansion in the UK and Ireland after acquiring sites in Manchester and Cork.
The UK-based brand, which is owned by Whitbread, has purchased a development site on the edge of Manchester’s Northern Quarter, which already has planning permission for a new 229-room hotel.
The company said that construction of the 10-storey hotel would start this summer. The property will include both standard and enhanced Premier Plus rooms, alongside an integrated restaurant, bar and check-in area on the ground floor.
Paul Smith, Whitbread’s property acquisition manager, said: “We are in the process of reconfiguring our network of hotels across central Manchester to ensure we have the right number of bedrooms in the right parts of the city centre for our guests.”
Whitbread has also acquired a second site in Cork in southern Ireland after opening its first property in the city in January.
The company has purchased the site, currently used as an entertainment centre, in the Victorian Quarter of Cork, which will be turned into a 168-room Premier Inn, subject to securing planning permission for the redevelopment.
Premier Inn currently has six hotels in Ireland offering a total of more than 1,000 rooms, but Whitbread believes it can increase this to 3,500 rooms across Ireland “in time”.