Premier Inn owner sees good demand in tourist spots as hotels reopen

(Reuters) - Premier Inn owner Whitbread <WTB.L> said on Tuesday it had seen a pick-up in demand in tourist destinations for the summer and planned to have most of its hotels reopened by the end of this month, while warning that it was too early to draw conclusions.

The company, which owns over 1,200 Premier Inn hotels and pubs across the UK, reported a 79% plunge in first-quarter sales as the coronavirus-led lockdown shuttered most of its hotels in Britain and Germany.

Over 270 hotels and 24 restaurants in the UK are now open, Whitbread said, adding that demand in metropolitan areas including London remained subdued.

"It is still very early days ... to draw any conclusions from our booking trajectory, especially as there has been volatility in hotel performance in other countries that relaxed controls before the UK," said CEO Alison Brittain, touted as a possible candidate to lead British domestic bank Lloyds <LLOY.L>.

Whitbread, which cancelled its dividend and raised 1 billion pounds ($1.25 billion) in a cash call in May, has been pushing to open more than 50 hotels in Germany in a bid to grab market share in Europe's biggest economy. All its 19 operational hotels in Germany are now open, it said.

The hotel operator, which started out as a brewery in the 18th century, had warned that demand recovery for its hotel rooms would be slow following the unprecedented health crisis.

(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)