Chief executive Alan Parker will say that heavy promotional activity, spearheaded by comedian Lenny Henry, has helped it to increase its share of the key business market while attracting new custom from the tourist trade in the opening months of the year.

But the extra business has been won at a heavy cost, with one million hotel rooms currently on offer at just £29 a night and average room rates plunging by around 9.5% in the first six months of 2009.

The discounting is expected to result in a slippage in total sales to below

£550 million at the combined hotels and restaurants division, while analysts at Morgan Stanley predict that profits will dip 10% to around the £125m mark.

The underlying trend at the hotels is worse than the bald figures suggest as they include the benefits of an extra 2000 rooms and improved returns from restaurants such as Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table and Taybarns.

Premier Inn operates some 580 budget hotels, including 20 in the Greater Glasgow area, and has been forced to join rival Travelodge and others in slicing prices as a result of the shrinkage in its market following a 9% fall in UK visitor numbers and cutbacks in corporate spending.

But industry experts say it is faring far better than most rivals, with one hotel company closing every two days in the late summer. Ernst & Young’s Scotland ITEM club has forecast the loss of 30,000 Scottish jobs in retail related and hotel industries between 2008 and 2011.

A recent survey carried out by PriceWaterhouseCoopers added to the general gloom, finding that only 8% of hotel owners expect an end to the decline in room rates in the remaining months of this year (although an overwhelming 60% look for flat or rising rates in 2010).

Scotland has managed to outperform the rest of the UK over the summer thanks to the rise in stay-at-home holidaymakers but there are concerns that it may come down to earth with a bump as the nights draw in.

Research by accountants at KKR found that Edinburgh led the way in August, when the festival season resulted in occupancy rates of 91.7% and room revenue of £111.27, but Glasgow hotels were able to achieve 85% occupancy levels only after slashing room prices from an average £69.33 to £55.97 over the past year.

Aberdeen occupancy levels slipped to 72.3% despite a 10% drop in room rates to an average £54.46 a night.

Whitbread, one of Scotland’s major employers with approaching 4000 on the pay-roll, has developed a profitable niche market through its expanding Costa coffee chain.

Brokers believe that this side of the business could surprise with news of a profits jump from £7m to £12m or more, which could help total group profits to work out at around £113m at the half-year stage, down about 8% on the same period last year.

Most analysts believe that directors will indicate that they are happy with full-year forecasts of around £200m profits, down from an underlying £230m last year, although they believe that Whitbread will have to rely on cost cutting and savings on interest charges to make any real progress in 2010.

Despite the flat forecasts, Whitbread shares have risen some 40% to above £12 each this year and 11 out of 14 brokers polled by Hemscott still rate them a buy on hopes that the hotel industry is nearing the bottom of its current trading cycle.

They point out that the price has come down from above £20 back in 2007 and that the company stands to gain from further industry consolidation.

Speculators say that the group would be particularly interested in any deal with Dubai International Capital Group, owner of the still-expanding Travelodge chain.