Premier Inn owner Whitbread has slumped to a £1billion annual loss after the coronavirus crisis forced its hotels and restaurants to close for most of last year.
But the company hopes to see a staycation boom over the summer as lockdown rules continue to ease.
Around 27,000 of its workers were furloughed in the last year and one in eight head office staff were axed.
Whitbread also owns Beefeater and Brewers Fayre restaurants in the UK, which too have been hit by Covid-19 closures.
The company noted how 92% of its hotels in the UK have now reopened and it plans on investing £350million into the business this year.
In its financial update today, the company said revenues plunged from £2.07billion to £589.4million, with a pre-tax profit of £280million.
Sales were down 71.4% in the 12 months to February 25 compared with a year earlier, it said.
The update comes after Whitbread confirmed it axed around 1,500 members of staff after its sales were hit by the pandemic.
There are around 800 Premier Inn hotels across the UK.
Under current lockdown rules, Brits can only book into a hotel stay for work, education or other legally permitted reasons.
Overnight stays for leisure reasons are expected to be allowed from May 17 at the earliest.
As for restaurants, hospitality businesses have been allowed to reopen for outside bookings since April 12, with indoor bookings also pencilled to reopen from May 17.
Chief executive Alison Brittain said: "The last financial year was one of the most challenging in our 279 year history, as we operated under significant COVID restrictions.
"The vaccination programme in the UK means we can look forward to the planned relaxation of government restrictions as we move into summer, with the first major milestone being the return of leisure guests to our hotels, and the full reopening of restaurants from 17 May.
"We expect a significant bounce in leisure demand in our tourist locations during the summer, followed by a gradual recovery in business and event-driven leisure demand."
