Senior Location Strategy & Planning Analyst

Job Title: Senior Location Strategy Analyst Contract Type: Permanent Location: Head office Dunstable LU5 Hybrid working 3 days a week in the office This role is responsible for developing and maintaining the UK Location Strategy network plan for Premier Inn and hub, ensuring it remains up to date following key business reviews and planning discussions. The role turns complex market, demand and competitor insight into clear, investment-ready recommendations that support Whitbread's long-term growth. Acting as a bridge between strategy, analytics and delivery teams, it helps the business make informed decisions on where to invest, which formats to prioritise, and how to maximise sustainable returns. A key part of the role is modernising Whitbread's location strategy capabilities by introducing automation, scalable modelling tools and AI-enabled analytics to improve decision-making. Strong commercial judgement is essential, ensuring recommendations are grounded in trading performance, investment priorities and long-term value creation. As Whitbread's network continues to evolve, this role will play an increasingly important part in identifying, evaluating and delivering future growth opportunities. • Lead Location Strategy — Own and evolve the UK Location Strategy and Network Plan, ensure its up to date after meetings and status updates • Shape Market Insight — Act as the subject matter expert on UK hotel market dynamics, producing quarterly outlooks and governing competitor and market datasets to maintain a single source of truth. • Modernise Analytics — Lead the shift toward automated, scalable and AI enabled modelling, applying machine learning techniques to strengthen forecasting, scenario testing and cannibalisation logic while keeping outputs explainable. • Influence Senior Stakeholders — Partner with Property, Finance and Strategy teams to guide investment decisions, applying commercial judgement across all areas to maximise long term value creation. Why you'll love it here Bonus potential up to 15% Pension contributions matched up to 10% Up to 60% off stays with Premier inn and Hub What you'll need • Ability to take full end to end ownership of the Strategic Growth Plan, working with stakeholders across acquisition, delivery, insight and strategy teams to align inputs and translate market, demand and supply insights into clear, actionable growth recommendations. • Experience owning and maintaining strategic datasets, ensuring data quality, governance and accuracy across multiple sources to support critical business decisions. • Strong quantitative modelling and analytical skills (Excel and/or Python), including forecasting, scenario analysis and investment modelling. • Ability to build robust location-level insight, integrating demand, supply, competitor and market dynamics to identify opportunities, risks and priorities. • Proven commercial judgement and communication skills, translating complex analysis into clear, evidence-based recommendations that influence investment and strategic decisions.