It seems that Whitbread is doing pretty well for itself despite the recession. It now appears that Whitbread, which is the owners of Costa Coffee and Premier Inn, has been seeing their numbers remain high. This is due mostly to the fact that, despite the recession, Brits still want their coffee and business travelers are now opting for budget hotels.

Whitbread has been seeing very upbeat trading. In fact, the company came out and said that its total sales actually rose by 2.4 percent in the first half of the year. Investors are welcoming this news with open arms and the shares went up 18 percent to £12.11.

Whitbread also went on to say that its total sales at Premier Inn, which seem to to contribute to more than three quarters of its profits, were flat in the first half. The chief executive of Whitbread, Alan Parker, said that it has been a very challenging and tough market for hotels lately. He said that they have still had better performance than most of their competitors. They have been able to hold their prices, and occupancy has declined against strong figures from last summer.

The good news for Premier Inn is that many business travelers seem to be trading in their five star hotels for three and four stars. They are apparently doing this in a big attempt to save money in light of the ongoing recession.

Although some numbers are starting to hold steady for hotels, it will still be a very long and hard recovery for most. It is very likely that more travel companies will fall due to the recession. Numbers may not be falling as fast now, but they are not getting better very quickly. Few companies are able to hold out with such sluggish sales for so long.