When I joined Whitbread 13 years ago, I didn’t have a clear career plan. I’d just finished university, I was ‘temping’ and wanted a role that felt interesting and purposeful. What I didn’t expect was that Whitbread would give me the space to build a career that evolved as my interests, and my life, changed.
Today, I work in the Commercial team as a Product Planning Manager – Refurbishment. My role is about setting strategy: deciding where we invest in the estate, which hotels need attention most, and how we protect the Premier Inn experience for the future.
Refurbishment isn’t about fixing things for the sake of it. It’s about understanding what guests are telling us and responding in a way that genuinely improves their experience.
Guest scores are a key data point for us. If scores are low, my job is to work out whether that’s a product issue, an operational issue, or something else entirely – because spending money only makes sense if it will materially improve the stay.
That long-term view is central to the role. I’m not just focused on this year’s plan, but also on what the estate should look like in two, three or five years’ time. It’s about consistency, reliability and protecting the brand at scale.
Before this role, I worked in New Openings, which is exciting and very visible when people see a bright and shiny new hotel open in their town or city. What surprised me about Commercial is that this is where the future of the brand is really shaped.
We design the next generation of Premier Inn rooms. We look closely at competitors, visit other brands, test ideas, challenge assumptions and think about what guests will need – not just now, but years from now.
“You see the shiny new hotels on the high street. What you don’t see is the work that goes into designing what comes next. That’s what we do.”
Every detail is intentional. From room layouts and zoning, to lighting, mattresses and even how soap is fixed to the wall – nothing goes into the estate without being tested, debated and proven. It’s creative work, but it’s also deeply commercial.
Internally, we talk about the “purple box” – the famous Premier Inn bedroom. It matters because it’s where our brand promise becomes real.
The room has to work for everyone: business travellers, families, solo guests, shift workers. It has to feel familiar, comfortable and reliable, wherever you are in the country. That level of consistency doesn’t happen by accident. It’s designed – and protected – by the Commercial team.
My career at Whitbread hasn’t followed a straight upward line. I started in Location Planning, moved into Internal Communications, then New Openings, and now Commercial.
Along the way, Whitbread sponsored my Chartered Institute of Marketing qualification, even though marketing wasn’t my day job at the time. I’ve sidestepped roles to learn something new, and during COVID I even stepped back into a more junior role because the work excited me and felt right.
That role evolved. I took on more responsibility. I’m now back at the level I was before – with broader impact and clearer purpose.
What’s made that possible is trust: trust from the business, and trust in myself to make moves that weren’t always obvious on paper.
I returned from maternity leave into this role and now work four days a week. For me, that was genuinely straightforward to arrange.
My manager has raised her children while working at Whitbread and that understanding shows. The balance isn’t perfect – you still have to protect it – but the culture makes it possible.
The reality of childcare enforces boundaries. Nursery pick-ups and bedtime aren’t optional and I’ve found that being clear about that hasn’t held me back.
Whitbread’s partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital has been part of my entire career here. It’s not just a corporate partnership – it’s something teams connect with locally and personally.
One of my proudest moments was leading Whitbread’s involvement in the Lord Mayor’s Show, celebrating team members from across the UK who had raised money for GOSH – many of whom had never been to London before.
“My proudest moments haven’t been about my role – they’ve been about creating experiences that recognise what other people have given.”
Right now, Commercial is an exciting place to be. It’s creative, future-focused and deeply connected to how Premier Inn will evolve.
If you’re considering a head office role at Whitbread, my experience has been this: you don’t need a rigid career plan. You do need curiosity, energy and the confidence to move sideways when it makes sense.
If you’re willing to give to the business, Whitbread will give you room to grow – often in ways you didn’t expect.