Word reaches Kitchen Rat that Whitbread, owner of budget hotel chain Premier Travel Inn, has bought Golden Tulip UK.
Peter Roberts, chief executive of Golden Tulip UK, was tight lipped but a move by Whitbread for the seven-strong hotel group would make sense especially with rival Travelodge expanding so aggressively.
Whether Golden Tulip’s Tulip Inns would be converted to Premier Travel Inns would need to be seen, although as a 3-star offer you’d imagine it would be relatively straight forward to convert the existing sites.
At the start of the year Golden Tulip promoted Andrew Silver to managing director to support its ambitious expansion plans in the UK and set itself a target of 25 hotels by 2009.
Golden Tulip is backed by private equity firm Graphite Capital and Barclays Bank.
Golden Tulip UK signs £40m deal on three new build hotels>>
Golden Tulip UK appoints first managing director to support expansion>>
Update: Sept 27. The Rat strikes again. The deal was confirmed by both parties yesterday.
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