Premier Inn Swot Analysis

Premier Inn is a famous British hotel brand with over 700 facilities worldwide. Being founded by Whitbread in the year 1987, the company is the result of a merge between Premier Lodge and Travel Inn. Premier Inn hotels operate under the strategic partnership between the leading international companies and Britain’s leading hospitality firm Whitbread PLC. This allows enhancing the popularity of the Premier Inn brand all over the world.
Premier Inn is a hotel with a limited service which enables the reasonable price rates to its customers. Even though room rates are relatively low, the hotel quality corresponds to the high standards (Premier Inn, 2017).
The Premier Inn’s mission is to deliver professional, reliable, and caring services superior

• To check the physical resources and scope of technical alliances with arrival of VC.
• To detect more financial, technical, and industrial expertise prior to applying VC.
• To develop and implement accelerated market presence.
To define the strategic capabilities of Premier Inn, it is worth to mention its dependence on the macro-environment. In fact, the hospitality sector is always affected by various economic tendencies, both negative and positive. The strategic plan will outline the major actions required for conducting the business.
The strategic capabilities can be identified by means of VRIO criteria, where V stands for value, R for rarity, I for imitation opportunities, and O for the company’s competitive advantage (Evans, 2015).
Resources and Capabilities
VRIO Framework V R I O Competitive Implication
Strong corporate culture + + + + Sustainable competitive advantage
Strong investment in R&D + + + + Temporary competitive advantage
Outstanding customer service + + + + Sustainable competitive advantage
Highly qualified employees + + + + Sustainable competitive

Weaknesses:
1. The high seasonal dependency for most of the hotel facilities.
2. The imbalanced market coverage and business portfolio.
3. The temporary character of competitiveness, which can be lowered anytime.
4. The massive spending on technological advances.
5. The brand image misconception in which low prices are usually associated with low quality product. Thus, holiday makers prefer to book accommodation in independent, more expensive hotels.
Strengths:
1. The spectrum of hotel locations is almost 40% larger than by the nearest competitors within the same hotel category. Over 70% of the UK population lives within five miles distance from Premier Inn Hotel (Whitbread PLC, 2016).
2. Constant investments reaching up to £150 million allow maintaining the high-quality standards (Whitbread PLC, 2016).
3. The reasonable balance between quality and price rates delivers a real value for money.
4. Professional customer service is offered in all sectors, from reception to meal serving.
5. Regular bonuses and benefits are granted to the hotel