In top quality summer blockbuster Independence Day, the alien spaceships lurk for a while after arrival, doing nothing more than challenging the laws of physics. There is some speculation as to their intent, but the most they achieve is casting a few big shadows.

So it was with Whitbread, until this week. Whitbread has earned the nickname “boring, boring Whitbread” because it has a solid, reliable, property-based business with good brand recognition and excellent reach across the UK. It has never – unlike, say, Accor – wanted to get into self-driving cars. It has never – unlike, say, Hilton – launched a brand with nothing more than some bicycles and a few plates of mini burgers in an east German rave hangar. And it would never – unlike, say, Travelodge – allow itself to become a barometer of the economy based on how soon a company voluntary arrangement season came around again.

Whitbread is the low-cost index fund to everyone else’s Bitcoin. As is only wise when you’re closing in on 300 years in business. But it certainly does cast a shadow. A market cap of £3.88bn at the time of writing, just after its results announcement (the share price fell 3%), around 850 hotels and the highest brand awareness of any hotel brand present in the UK, according to YouGov. Whitbread also operates in a resilient pricing position. 

Over the years, other hotel operators and investors have looked at this dominant force and fancied some of that. But it was just too big to justify. The operators didn’t want all that real estate and private equity didn’t want all that committed cash. It had become too big to buy, protected from everything other than the occasional activist shareholder, who were soon anaesthetised and slithered off back home. Or they did until Corvex Management spoke up in December with the biggest threat you can use in hotel land; the market isn’t valuing you properly. 

Last year, when the market wasn’t valuing Dalata properly, it got bought by Pandox. But at Whitbread, chief executive Dominic Paul announced the results of its strategic review and new five-year plan with the words: “Our conclusion is that our model is the right one.” Back to bed, everyone.

But not quite. Paul announced plans to shut the remaining Beefeater and Brewers Fayre restaurants, citing rising costs and instead looking to expand its bedrooms, as one would expect in a business where customers will be largely unconscious, creating “a higher-margin, higher-returning pure-play hotel business”. But more relevant to the hotel brokers who have been salivating over this story all week, it is selling £1.5bn of freehold property and leasing it back, embracing, if not asset light, then asset right. A mere 30 years after the rest of the hotel sector.

What will it be doing with these acres of cash? Buying a rival? Buying an airline to diversify? Buying self-driving cars? No, it will be revelling in having less capital expenditure. Shareholders should get a nice chunk, and some will go to growth, no doubt in Germany, where it is still scaling. 

The move will reduce its freehold ownership to between 30% and 40%. For comparison, the current open pipeline is 53% freehold to 47% leasehold. 

As one might expect from Whitbread, this is good, solid stuff, and if the market couldn’t swallow it straight, many analysts were chipper, noting the protection afforded from the shocking state of the cost and tax pressures and the long-term planning. The hotel brokers will be rewarded for their patience; all things being equal (which is the optimistic – from Trump’s side – view of the Iran war) the UK hotel sector is about to have a strong summer, which will boost the portfolio’s sale value, and there are plenty of pension funds out there with an appetite for Whitbread’s covenant. 

But what does it mean for Whitbread, apart from a £2bn buffer from sad times? Having encouraged the group to sell off some of the family jewels, shareholders may be emboldened to push for more. For the first time in Premier Inn’s history, it will be more leasehold than not. This may protect it from approach – because nothing alarms an investor like a lease – but there are plenty, like Pandox, who have no such qualms. 

As the hotel sector has moved into the mainstream as an asset class, it has attracted a broader spectrum of investors, no longer afraid of its myriad complexities. They will note the power of the Premier Inn brand and speculate over whether the group is worth more split along the lines of bricks and brains than left together. 

Announcing the five-year plan, Paul addressed the idea of selling off the brand as others (most-recently CitizenM to Marriott) have, and he didn’t like the idea of losing control of the flag, hence the hybrid. But having shown he’s willing to break from tradition, has he given hope to those who have been starved of a juicy bit of hotel M&A since Marriott bought Starwood Hotels & Resorts in *checks runes* 2015? Is this the beginning of the end for Whitbread’s independence? 

Spoiler alert. The answer to the question I am about to pose is 14. Fourteen out of 15 – or 93.3%. That’s not great.

 

Some context: The Good Apple Effect is a not-for-profit community interest company created to shine a bright spotlight on misuse of power and bullying in hospitality, while also shining an equally bright spotlight on the positive impact the sector sees when it is reduced.

 

At the Propel Multi-Club Conference in March, hospitality sector entrepreneur Bharti Radix, owner of BloomsYard, together with James Nye, managing director of Anglian Country Inns, and myself presented. At one point, we asked for volunteers to join us on stage. Fifteen people left their seats and joined us. Each was handed a green Granny Smith apple and a red Braeburn.

 

We explained the green apple represented great leadership that stretches people, develops people, holds people to account and is good for business, while the red apple represented misuse of power and bullying, based on the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service definition. This is the definition we put on the screen:

 

Misuse of power: When position, authority or influence is used in a way that creates unfair pressure, limits someone’s voice or disadvantages them.

 

Bullying: Behaviour that is offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting, and that undermines, humiliates or diminishes someone.

 

We then asked them: “Hold up the green apple if you have experienced great leadership in hospitality.” Fifteen green apples went up. Brilliant. Bravo. Slaps on the back all round hospitality sector; we get so much, so right, so often.

 

Then we asked them this: “Hold up the red apple if you have experienced misuse of power or bullying in hospitality.” Well, you know the answer.Bloomin’ heck. Fourteen.

 

Yes, I get it. It was not a big 2,000-plus survey, although that is in our plans. But it was a moment in time. A moment where 15 hospitality professionals stood up in front of their peers and had the guts and gumption to silently indicate that misuse of power and bullying exists in our sector. So, actually, a bigger bravo to them.

 

The Good Apple Effect will provide practical support, clear guidance and real-world examples to help people recognise misuse of power and bullying, understand the damage it causes and how to reduce it in practice, while showing the very real commercial and cultural benefits to our industry when it is reduced.

 

To steal a line from Mat Finch, managing director of Cornish Bakery, a Propel Conference presenter regular: “Happy people = happy customers = happy commercials.”

 

And talking of Propel Conferences, I will be at the Excellence in Pub and Bar Retailing Conference on Tuesday, 19 May. If you see me, please do stop me and ask me this question: “How can I help the Good Apple Effect keep the Granny Smiths up and get the Braeburns down?”

 

I will happily thrust my business card into your hand. It will tell how you can personally chip in or how your company can support us. Let’s work together to make hospitality a sector that careers advisers, and mums and dads, feel safe and confident recommending. A sector where people are treated properly, where great leadership is the standard and where performance follows as a result. Get that right, and people do their best work, build lasting careers and deliver better experiences for guests and stronger commercial results.

 

The Good Apple Effect has strategic links to the Licensed Trade Charity and Hospitality Action. Our ambassador advisors are Stephen Gould, Ceri Gott, Kate Nicholls and, as exclusively announced in Propel this week, one of hospitality’s most admired restaurateurs, Jeremy King.

 

Finally, thank you Carey Benn from Guestwise for being the first corporate company to chip in. Many others have followed but thank-you for being the first. 

 

In summary: Fifteen out of 15, beautifully and wonderfully acceptable. Fourteen out of 15. No, not acceptable. Let’s keep the Granny Smiths up and get the Braeburns down. 

Britain was named Europe’s work from home capital in the aftermath of covid-19, with employees spending more days away from the office than in any other nation across the continent. But this status might need to be revisited because of the growing number of employers now stipulating that more time must be spent in the office. 

 

Research from King’s College London in May 2025 found UK workers spent an average of 1.8 days working from home per week compared with a global average of 1.3 days. Only Canada – with its 1.9 days at home – surpassed the UK from the 40 global nations studied. The report stated: “This isn’t just a post-pandemic hangover – British workers have clearly decided they’re not going back to the old days.” 

 

Not so fast with that conclusion. Employers have had other ideas, with many indicating the days of the work-from-home bonanza are slowly coming to an end. As many as 48% of businesses now expect their employees to spend all their working days in the office, according to the British Chambers of Commerce, which compares with a much lesser 27% in 2023. 

 

Businesses including AO World, THG, Boots, Amazon and various banks such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have been demanding five days per week returns to the office. The move is clearly widespread, judging by the demand for office property market across the UK, with 30.5% of office opportunities already sold or under offer, according to BPS London.

 

This has been reflected in the bounce-back of Canary Wharf, which looked to be in serious trouble in the post-pandemic office working gloom, but it is currently experiencing the strongest demand for office leases in the past ten years, with occupancy levels hitting 89.2% in 2025. JP Morgan recently announced it is to build a European headquarters in Canary Wharf to house 12,000 employees.

 

The implications of all this for hospitality businesses that are exposed to locations with office blocks seems obvious. The greater numbers of workers in the office have driven a rise in weekday lunch bookings, with an increase of 4% experienced last year versus 2024, according to OpenTable, which also found diners spending 8% more per person on business meals. 

 

A conclusion from this is that the midday meeting has become an occasion for higher value dining rather than the quick-and-functional lunch. This has certainly been recognised by Los Mochis and its City of London restaurant, with its owner, Marcus Thesleff, stating he is “very excited about the City” and that the unit has been a big success on the back of a much higher average spend than other restaurants in the capital.

 

Highlighting the increased spend flowing to work-related dining is the recent launch of Deliveroo for Work (that follows Just Eat for Business), with the company suggesting “the office lunch is officially back”. It takes advance orders for group bookings for deliveries to offices, with group-friendly menus designed for the workplace available from select restaurants including Pizza Pilgrims, The Salad Project, Bleecker Burger and Sushi Dog. The dedicated service comes on the back of a serious 60%-plus increase in corporate orders on the platform between 2022 and 2025. 

 

I’ve seen first-hand evidence of the increased buoyancy of hospitality in the City and office-heavy environments when visiting the reopened Shepherd Neame-owned Hoop & Grapes in Farringdon Street, which had been closed since mid-2020, when the offices around it were all being redeveloped. It now finds itself with people dining and spilling out on to the street at lunchtime and post-work. On my Friday early-evening jaunt to this historical pub, it was mobbed.

 

Jonathan Neame, chief executive of Shepherd Neame, has suggested: “It’s surrounded by offices, and more and more people are coming back to the office. It’s now [moved to] more five-day [trading] in the City and seven-day elsewhere. The Hoop & Grapes is a classic chameleon pub – switching from being a great drinking pub on a Thursday to a more sedate dining pub midweek.” 

 

The return to the office and the dilution of the work-from-home phenomenon has very much been a slow-burn that has undoubtedly surprised many people who have grown to assume hybrid working has been the new ingrained dynamic. Although we will likely never return to the office working levels of the pre-pandemic era, the UK’s shift away from its status as the work-from-home capital of Europe undoubtedly represents a much welcome opportunity for many hospitality businesses.