Publican Awards Winners: Best Accommodation Operator, sponsored by Hospitality Gem - The Coaching Inn Group

The focus is on the business and leisure market and the group has successfully created an informal inn-style atmosphere in what are essentially quite large hotel-style venues, with some offering conference/function facilities. All sites are built around a bustling bar, serving local ales and a good food offering to guests and the local community. It has matured as a group over the past year and now understand what the consumer wants at a 4-star coaching inn – the benchmark quality for a room refurbishment has been raised significantly.

In 2016 the Coaching Inn Group added six new sites, investing £7m in acquisitions and renovations/refurbishments, adding a further 128 bedrooms, as well as investing £800,000 in refurbishing letting rooms at a further four sites. The group now has 13 sites and a total of 380 bedrooms. These new acquisitions are part of a £20m expansion programme, with a target of 15 sites before the end of April this year, plus £5m is being pumped into major refurbishments at five sites over the coming months. In December 2016, the company secured a further £10m from the Business Growth Fund and investment will take the Coaching Inn Group up to the next level.

Turnover increased by 33% (now £13m) and profit increased by 60%; EBITDA increased by 56%; and like-for-like sales were up 5.8%. The average occupancy rate is 78% and the total profit from rooms has increased by 42%.

The first six months of 2016 saw a 10% increase in accommodation sales, with a 22% rise in August on a like-for-like basis compared with 2015. To help achieve these impressive figures they aimed for consistently high standards across the group and established a new central reservations team to drive sales. The team was instrumental in delivering £4m in accommodation revenue in 2016.