Premier Inn bars

[NickDavies]

I've seen a few What?ub entries which imply that Whitbread are making Premier Inn restaurants residents only "without planning approval".

This seems strange, do they really need planning consent to do that?

[Maldenman]

This might be because some premises including public houses were redesignated as use class Sui Generis under planning a few years back. Any premises in this use class will normally require planning for any change of use class so possibly the bar or restaurant would be reclassified under hotel or private use. Purely my take on this as I’m not a planner but did used to work closely with them.

[rpadam]

The key point is whether they are trying to turn public houses into residents-only hotel bars without planning permission.

The Whitbread argument seems to be that any pub use was incidental to their use as part of a hotel, i.e. that they were always hotel bar / restaurants so there has been no change of use.

Very controversial, where these Beefeater / Brewers Fayre / etc. pub restaurants had separate branding / advertising from the adjacent Premier Inn, had their own entrances and were open throughout the day and not just for breakfast / evening meals.

[ROBCamra]

I've closed circa 115 of them in the last couple of weeks.

Though calling them pubs ................

[ETA]

Though calling them pubs ................

Thin end of the wedge?

[Pangolin]

Part of a general move to axe many of their bar/restaurants and concentrate on hotel rooms. According to the Chief Exec's Review in the AR (below), they are closing 112 which will be replaced by internal facilities, selling off 126 as going concerns, and retaining 196 "branded restaurants". To what extent any from these categories continue as "pubs" (ie open to the public for just drinks) presumably depends on local circumstances.

Over the next 24 months we plan to add
3,500 new rooms to our pipeline through
a new extensions programme. This includes
transforming 112 branded restaurants
into new hotel rooms having first transferred
the delivery of F&B for our hotel guests
at these sites to a more tailored, integrated
restaurant, that will be built inside the
neighbouring hotel, mirroring the
popular format already available at 387
of our hotels. In 2023/24, these branded
restaurants generated revenue of £121m
and a PBT loss1
of £19m.
2) Over the next 24 months we are
planning to exit 126 branded restaurants;
they will continue to operate as they do
now so that they can be sold as going
concerns. Of these restaurants, we have
agreed to sell 21 for £28m. In 2023/24,
these 126 restaurants in aggregate
generated revenue of £147m and a PBT
loss1
of £9m. The proceeds from these
disposals will be used to help fund our
investment in building a more tailored,
integrated restaurant at our affected
hotels as well as the construction of new
hotel rooms across the estate.
The majority of our sites, including our
existing 387 integrated restaurants and our
remaining portfolio of 196 higher returning
branded restaurants, will continue to operate
as normal and are not affected in any way