With 800 hotels in the UK and Ireland, Whitbread has asked landlords to cut rent by 50% for the next three months as the pandemic restrictions continue to hit trading.
The owner of the Premier Inn, Beefeater and Brewers Fayre brands said in a letter to landlords they must 'share some of the pain' of lockdown. Unlike many rivals, Whitbread has continued to pay rent in full.
Whitbread said that it had suffered a significant net cash outflow in the first half of the year and that it expected government restrictions to continue to damage the sector’s performance.
The company warned, back in September, that 6,000 of its workers could be laid off. Over 27,000 Whitbread staff were furloughed under the Job Retention Scheme.