Analysts predict that the company could report revenues of around £2.9 billion and pre-tax profits of £490 million for the full year. They will be closely watching Wednesday's update for the company's revenue per available room (RevPAR), a key measure for hotels to gauge their sales performance and room occupancy.
In the last financial year, the group's RevPAR was £59.45 and occupancy was nearly 83% in the UK. Investors will be interested to see if the average room cost has increased over the first half of the year and whether this has affected demand.
Susannah Streeter, a top analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "Whitbread has expressed confidence for the year ahead and, with a strong first quarter under the belt, optimism about the half-year is relatively buoyant." She also mentioned that customers are currently accepting price increases and demand for accommodation is steady. However, she warned that cost-of-living pressures could affect spending habits, which has been impacting the share price.
She added: "So, investors will be keeping a keen eye on future guidance, particularly for the food offering which has shown signs of weakness." Ms Streeter also noted that Whitbread's rapid expansion in Germany represents an opportunity to establish a presence in a market dominated by private hotels. In other news, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), the owner of Holiday Inn, is set to update investors on its trading performance this Friday. The group, which also operates high-end hotels like Regent and Six Senses, reported sales growth of nearly a quarter in its August half-year results. It stated that it had not seen any signs of consumers reducing spending or demand for leisure travel decreasing.
