Premier Inn plans South Manchester extension

The hotel chain is continuing its drive to expand existing sites, proposing a 30-bedroom expansion at its West Didsbury hotel on the outskirts of Manchester.

In recent weeks, Whitbread, which owns the Premier Inn brand, has also lodged plans to grow hotels in Cheadle, Hertfordshire, and Cambridge, among others by knocking down underperforming restaurants and redeveloping the sites into rooms.

In total, Premier Inn plans to demolish 112 restaurants at various UK sites and build extensions.

The strategy is aimed at increasing the number of Premier Inn rooms nationally by 3,500.

In West Didsbury, the company’s Derwent Road site would become around 25% bigger under plans to bulldoze the Beefeater restaurant and build a two-storey annexe in its place.

First constructed with 80 bedrooms in the early noughties, the hotel was extended once before by 32 rooms in 2016.

To learn about the latest expansion plans, search for reference number 140916/FO/2024 on Manchester City Council’s planning portal.

Waslingham Planning is advising Whitbread on the proposals. Alison Pike is the architect.

As well as expanding existing sites, Whitbread is also delivering new Premier Inn hotels. It has recently completed a 71-bed hotel in Keswick and will soon start the construction of a 229-bed venue in Manchester city centre.

Overall, Whitbread is looking for 24 new sites across the north of England.