Whitbread’s Premier Inn brand has claimed the accolade of best-known hotel brand in Britain, knocking Hilton off the top perch.
The most recent quarterly update on the British Hotel Guest Survey, published by BDRC Continental, shows Premier Inn on 58% unaided awareness amongst business travellers – making it ahead of Hilton for the first time in this market segment, albeit by a single percentage point. Hilton had previously been the premier brand for top of mind awareness in the business market since it eclipsed Forte in 1996.
Among leisure market travellers, Premier Inn reached the top spot for unaided hotel brand awareness for the first occasion in the comparable quarter in 2012, and in the most recent report has stretched its lead in this segment with a score of 66% – making it six points ahead of nearest rival Travelodge, putting Hilton in third place.
For actual hotel brand usage, Premier Inn and Travelodge are now the top two players in both the business and the leisure travel segments.
Tim Sander, head of hotel brand monitoring services at BDRC Continental, says: “While it has taken some time for the sheer distribution of the leading budget hotel brands to be reflected in consumer perceptions, now that Premier Inn and Travelodge are at the top of the pole they will take some shifting and the course of the market appears set for some time to come.”
