Advising Future Inns on the sale of its Bristol and Plymouth hotels to Whitbread

We have advised Future Inns on the sale of its hotels in Bristol and Plymouth to Whitbread PLC, the UK’s largest hotel operator and owner of Premier Inn.

The transaction will see Whitbread acquire the two hotels as part of its ongoing UK expansion strategy, further strengthening Premier Inn’s presence in both cities. The sale brings to an end more than 20 years of successful ownership of these two hotels by Future Inns.

The Bristol and Plymouth properties comprise 292 bedrooms in aggregate and will become part of Premier Inn’s growing network across the UK and Ireland.

The Gateley team was led by corporate partner Max Moore, forming a core transaction team together with real estate senior associate Joshua Saxton and Abby Halcarz (senior associate, employment). We were supported at various times on the project by Daniel Walsh (partner, real estate), Dawn Reynolds (partner, real estate dispute resolution), Tammi Broad (senior associate, tax), Gweni Rees-Evans (senior associate, corporate) and trainees and paralegals Ben Goodwin, Will Buttress and Callum Bourne.

Throughout the transaction, we worked closely with the agents who advised Future Inns on the sale, Enterprise Hotels & Hospitality and Knight Frank.

Max Moore commented: “We are pleased to have advised Future Inns on this landmark hotels transaction. Bringing together specialists from across Gateley enabled us to support the client throughout every stage of the process. It was a pleasure to work closely with the Future Inns team and the agents throughout to bring the deal to a successful completion.”