Premier Inn launches hi-tech hotel controlled by app

The UK's largest hotel group has announced their concept for a new breed of high-tech city centre hotel rooms focusing on cheap, small rooms in popular locations.

Whitbread is due to open its first "hub by Premier Inn" in St Martin's Lane in the West End in summer 2014.

High-tech hotel add-ons and hotel apps for phones are nothing new nowadays but Whitbread's concept involves installing hub apps to allow customers to book, check-in and pre-select a room online and to adjust lights and temperature, change television channels and even order breakfast with one tap of a smartphone.

According to The Guardian, the hubs will be compact and contemporary with "excellent connectivity that will offer good value for money and appeal to customers who value price, location and design over space".

Hub rooms are set to work out around 30 per cent cheaper than Premier Inn rates, with an average room rate in central London below £100 and starting prices and off-peak rates likely to be around £60.

Whitbread is aiming to have around 40 "hub by Premier Inn" hotels opened by 2018, with a total of 6,000 rooms and has confirmed that they will open in four further locations throughout central London in 2015 and 2016 - in Goodge Street, Great Tower Street, Spitalfields and King's Cross - and the company is also planning hub hotels for Edinburgh and other cities.

Andy Harrison, the Whitbread chief executive, said: "We have 6% of the central London market at the moment so we think we've got a lot to go for."


So what will your money get you?
The 11.4sq metre rooms are expected to feature all teh mod cons you'd expect from a modern city hotel as well as the built in hub app.

They will each have a desk that folds into the bed, luggage storage beneath the bed, an en suite bathroom with power shower, free Wi-Fi and a 40-inch smart screen television, which can be controlled by the app hub.

Although the hub rooms will provide plenty of tech value for money, they aren't the most technologically advanced hotel rooms by a long a shot.

The Peninsula hotel in Tokyo, Japan features lazy bedside bonuses like nail polish dryers, a remote control for the curtains and an automatic mute setting on the TV that is activated when the room phone rings. If you thought that was tech-heavy, Times Square's Hotel is home of the world's only robotic luggage concierge.

Will you be booking a stay in one of Whitbread's new hub hotels or is all this tech just too much for a relaxing stay?

If you're more into luxury than technology, have a look inside the world's seven star hotels.

%VIRTUAL-Gallery-181027%