Premier Inn recently announced two new price point offers, which could be a really good idea for business owners! You see Whitbread, who own Premier Inn, have entered the market at a much lower price point. They also have a new, design-led Premium Product too.

The first ‘Zip’ hotel by Premier Inn will open in Cardiff early next year, with 138 rooms. These are significantly smaller than those in an existing Premier Inn hotel. Whitbread says its customers are happy to sacrifice room size and a central location for what it calls a ‘bargain basement price’. The price per night is set to be around £19.

As one of the larger hotel chains, Premier Inn have lots of locations, but are obviously still hungry for more market share. This ‘Zip’ offer may well help them to achieve that. Couple that with the ‘design-led’ ‘Hub’ offer at a higher £57 per night, and you can see that Whitbread have definite plans for growth and diversification.

Why is it a lesson for business owners?

Research suggests that 20% of your customers would pay for a higher priced service or product if you make one available to them, yet many businesses simply don’t have a Premium Product.

If you don’t have an obvious Premium Product, a similar approach to the ‘Zip’ hotel could be a way to gain increased market share. It proves your business to a customer at a lower price, then you can encourage them to move across to your ‘standard’ product.

In this example, ‘Zip’ will bring people who otherwise wouldn’t stay in hotels into Premier Inn’s audience, and from there Whitbread will have a chance to sell the central locations, bigger rooms and the other enhanced benefits its more traditional hotels offer.

For those who want more than the ‘standard’ Premier Inn experience, the ‘Hub’ offer is coming to fulfil that requirement.

If you don’t have a Premium Product, you might want to consider a similar approach…

To find out more about the new Premier Inn offerings, click here.