view share price

Premier Inn secures fourth site in Dublin city centre

13 Dec 2019 Estate

Premier Inn Dublin Gloucester Street

UK’s largest hotel business ramps up Ireland expansion with acquisition  of coveted South Docklands site

Whitbread Plc, the owner of the Premier Inn hotel chain, working with its development partner Red Rock Developments has secured its fourth location in Dublin city centre. 

The prime site on Gloucester Street in Dublin 2, which will be redeveloped into a 108-bedroom Premier Inn hotel, increases Premier Inn’s secured development pipeline in the city to more than 630 bedrooms, and 830 hotel rooms across Ireland.   

Premier Inn is expanding rapidly into Ireland as it grows its presence from a single trading hotel at Dublin Airport to 2,500 rooms in Dublin, with the potential for significant growth nationwide.

Commenting on the acquisition, Kevin Murray, Head of Acquisitions for Premier Inn in Ireland, said:

“Our ambition is for Premier Inn to be the number one budget hotel chain in Dublin and across Ireland. We are investing strategically to secure the top locations that Premier Inn is known for and Gloucester Street, with its proximity to Trinity College and the south Docklands corporate market is exactly the type of location we are looking for. Securing the site is another important milestone for us and we’re actively seeking new freehold and leasehold opportunities across the city as we work towards our target of 2,500 Premier Inn Dublin bedrooms.”

After signalling its intent to expand into the Irish market in 2018, Whitbread has secured 635 Premier Inn rooms in Dublin city centre in four locations – at South Great George’s Street, Jervis Street, Castleforbes Business Park and now Gloucester Street.  The hotels developments, which are a mixture of freehold and leasehold acquisitions, are planned to open from early 2021 onwards.

Premier Inn has also recently secured its first location in Cork, a 183-bedroom hotel as part of the Morrisons Quay regeneration scheme on the banks of the River Lee, which is due to open in 2023. 

After growing in Dublin and Cork, Whitbread sees the potential for Premier Inn hotels in other cities across Ireland including Galway, Limerick and Killarney. The business is seeking sites as freeholds, leaseholds, office to hotel conversions as well as going concern purchases.

Dan O’Connor, Executive Vice President of Hotels and Hospitality at JLL, who has been working with Whitbread on its expansion in Ireland added:

“We are delighted to once more advise Whitbread on another pre-let deal, this time in core Dublin 2 and on a rare south docklands site. The site is conveniently located amongst leading office schemes, including Georges Quay, Georges Court and Riverview House and is just minutes’ walk from Dublin’s IFSC. By year end, we expect to have secured over 800 new Premier Inn rooms in the capital and over 1,000 new rooms nationwide.”

Keith Craddock, Managing Director of Red Rock Developments, said:

“It has been a pleasure working with Whitbread and their wider team. We look forward to delivering a high specification 10 storey hotel for Whitbread on one of the last remaining development sites in the South Docks and adding a new landmark building to the Dublin City skyline.”

Outside of the UK and Ireland, Premier Inn is expanding rapidly in Germany with three Premier Inn hotels open and trading more than 8,000 bedrooms in the secured pipeline. In the UK and Ireland, Whitbread sees the potential for 110,000 Premier Inn rooms.

ENDS

For more information, please contact:

Notes to editors

  • Whitbread currently operates one Premier Inn hotel in Ireland at Dublin Airport (213 bedrooms).
  • The 97-bedroom Premier Inn hotel at South Great George’s Street is currently on-site and is expected to open in the first quarter of 2021. Construction of the Jervis Street Premier Inn is scheduled to start in 2020. 
  • In Northern Ireland Whitbread operates eight Premier Inn hotels at Bangor, Belfast (3 hotels) Coleraine, Carrickfergus, Derry/Londonderry and Lisburn.
  • The target locations for Premier Inn and hub by Premier Inn are available on the property pages of the Whitbread website here together with a list of contacts in Whitbread’s property acquisition team.

About Premier Inn

Premier Inn was named the UK’s top-rated hotel chain for 2018 according to Which? With almost 800 hotels and more than 76,000 rooms across the UK and Ireland, Premier Inn guests are never far from a great night’s sleep at fantastic value rates. Premier Inn hotels are in more locations than any other UK hotel brand for the ease and convenience of leisure and business travellers alike.

All Premier Inn bedrooms feature en-suite bathrooms, a luxurious Hypnos® bed, a choice of pillows, TV with Freeview and free Wi-Fi. A bar and restaurant is situated either on-site or next door to each hotel, offering a wide range of food and drink including a delicious all-you-can-eat breakfast.

Across the estate, the average Trip Advisor score for Premier Inn hotels is 4.2. Premier Inn has been awarded the Best UK Family Hotel in the TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards, Best UK Hotel Group in the Silver Travel Awards and the Business In The Community Environmental Leadership Award. In 2018 Premier Inn was also named the UK’s top-rated hotel chain for the fourth year in a row by Which?

Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity is the National Charity partner of Premier Inn and to date team members, guests and suppliers have reached the milestone of £10 million, which formed part of the funding towards the Premier Inn Clinical Building, officially opened by HRH The Duchess of Cambridge in January 2018.

Outside of the UK, Premier Inn’s expansion plans are focused on Germany.  Premier Inn opened its first hotel in Frankfurt in 2016 and has more than 8,000 Premier Inn bedrooms in its secured pipeline in Germany.

Visit our brand sites