Edinburgh City Council has given approval in principle for a new Premier Inn hotel at Edinburgh Airport, due to open in 2028.
Whitbread, which owns the Premier Inn brand, worked with Riverstone Hotels to secure permission for the 218-bedroom development on Eastfield Road, close to the airport’s main entrance. The scheme follows months of engagement with the council.
The hotel will be less than a 10-minute walk from the terminal. It adds to Whitbread’s existing two Premier Inns serving the airport and is intended to support rising passenger demand, with Edinburgh handling more than 16 million travellers a year to 155 destinations.
Plans for the L-shaped, five-storey building were lodged earlier this year. The hotel will include Premier Inn’s latest room formats, including its Premier Plus option, alongside a ground-floor ‘The Social’ space. It will be fully powered by electricity from renewable sources and will provide 100 parking spaces for guests.
The development is one of three new Premier Inns planned in Edinburgh, creating more than 500 additional rooms. Whitbread estimates its guests contribute more than £32m a year in outside spending across the city, with more than one million overnight stays annually across its 14 existing hotels.
Jill Anderson, acquisition manager at Whitbread, said: “Edinburgh Airport is in growth mode. Passenger numbers are increasing steadily, and the list of direct destinations is growing longer every year.As the airport continues to succeed and grow, so are we by investing in additional bedrooms for our customers to enjoy – in this instance so close to the terminal that they will be able to walk from the airport to the new hotel in less than ten minutes.
“Securing the ‘mind to grant’ notice for the 218-room hotel is a vital step in delivering the new location for our customers. We will work closely with Riverstone to agree the final details and ensure progress is made quickly.”
Premier Inn operates more than 85,000 rooms across 850 locations in the UK and Ireland, with Whitbread targeting up to 125,000 rooms in its two core markets over time.
