Whitbread kicked off life as a focused hotel company with a weak third-quarter trading update today and warned investors that its 2020 results would be no better than flat. Alison Brittain, the Whitbread chief executive, said that although trading in London had benefited from inbound tourism, in the regions lower consumer confidence in both the leisure and corporate markets had dampened demand. “We expect the subdued treds to continue in the fourth quarter and into next year, given macro-economic and political uncertainty,” she said. “We are quite cautious and can’t call a recovery in confidence, given everything happening around us.”She insisted, however, that the company would “continue to invest through the cycle” in expanding its budget hotel business in the UK and Germany: “We…

Source: The Times January 17, 2019 12:05 UTC