A BASINGSTOKE hotel could be set to expand.

Premier Inn bosses have applied for planning consent to expand its Basingstoke Leisure Park outlet by 22 bedrooms.

Currently the hotel, described as the Basingstoke West Premier Inn, is made up of 99 bedrooms with the adjoining Beefeater restaurant able to cater for a total of 248 guests.

The application is part of Premier Inn’s national strategy for expansion with the business looking to reach 85,000 rooms by 2020 across the country.

A planning statement prepared by Walsingham Planning on behalf of Premier Inn, read: “For the year 2016/17 “Mid-week” average occupancy rates at Basingstoke West Premier Inn was above 85 per cent.

“Further, these annual average figures disguise seasonal variations and the Basingstoke West Premier Inn is frequently operating at full capacity.

“This shows that there is a clear need/demand for the proposed additional rooms.”

The statement added: “Given the nature of the site, the best option to deliver additional rooms at Basingstoke West Premier Inn would be to extend the line of the existing building in this same layout either side of a central corridor.

“However, such an extension on the western end of the main hotel building was ruled out as impractical. This is because the new rooms in this location would be a significant distance from the reception and restaurant meaning that the guests would have to walk further.”

With the additional rooms the plan is also to increase the parking capacity from 139 spaces to 148.

However, it is said the two-storey extension will not require any additional land to be acquired to accommodate the move.

For more information, go to planning.basingstoke.gov.uk and search for the reference 18/02374/FUL.