Premier Travel Inn

Whitbread PLC
09 March 2006



9 March 2006


             WHITBREAD ACQUIRES SEVEN HOLIDAY INN HOTELS TO CONVERT TO
                           PREMIER TRAVEL INN BRAND


Whitbread PLC has today entered into an agreement to acquire the business and
assets of seven Holiday Inn branded hotels from wholly owned subsidiaries of LRG
Acquisition Limited for a total consideration of £34.5 million.


The seven hotels (1021 rooms) will be converted to Premier Travel Inn, recently
rated the 'Most Improved Brand of the Year' by the BDRC British Hotel Guest
Survey. The acquisition underlines the brand's leading position in the UK's
budget hotel sector with over 31,000 rooms and 474 hotels across the UK, 30 of
which are located in Central London.


Alan Parker, Chief Executive, Whitbread PLC said: 'Last week we announced a new
target of 45,000 rooms in the UK by 2010. Today's announcement marks a
significant step towards this target and injects further pace into our expansion
plans. We see acquisition and conversion opportunities such as this as a rich
seam to exploit for future growth.'


The seven hotels will be transformed over the course of the next six months with
a refurbishment programme.


Patrick Dempsey, Managing Director of Premier Travel Inn, said:' As a result of
the strength of our product and our value-for-money price proposition, Premier
Travel Inn continues significantly to outperform the competition and more
customers choose to stay with us than any other hotel brand in the UK. Now
they'll have even more Premier Travel Inns where they can get a good night's
sleep guaranteed.'


The seven sites are located at:

South Mimms (142 rooms)
London Hampstead (143 rooms)
Peterborough (95 rooms)
Leicester South West (170 rooms)
Carlisle (127 rooms)
Newcastle City Centre (194 rooms)
Cardiff North (150 rooms)


In respect of Cardiff and Carlisle the acquisitions are subject to respective
landlord's consent to assign. Completion of all seven hotels is expected to take
place over the next two months.


Ends

For more information please contact:


Investor Relations:
Christopher Rogers, Whitbread PLC               [phone]


Press Contacts:
Anna Glover, Whitbread PLC                      [phone]
Andrew Grant, Tulchan                           [phone]




                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange