News from Virgin Media

RACHEL STEVENS ‘TURNS ON’ VIRGIN MEDIA’S

NEW 50Mb BROADBAND SERVICE

Strictly Come Dancing star Rachel Stevens officially switched on the new Virgin Media 50Mb broadband service in London today, to mark the launch of the UK’s fastest broadband service.

The new ultrafast 50Mb broadband is nine times the speed of average headline broadband speed in the UK, meaning that fans will be able to stream and download catch-up shows like Strictly Come Dancing, faster than ever before. Virgin Media’s new 50Mb service signals the launch of the first next-generation broadband network in the UK and will allow Brits to enjoy new and more engaging content such as high quality online TV, gaming and music services.

Rachel Stevens said, "I use the internet every day so broadband is essential and the faster the better, as it means I can fit more into my day! I'm in regular email contact with my team and friends and I'm re-designing my website at the moment which involves lots of imagery approval so I couldn't be without it. I love fashion and browse and buy clothes online. This year I'm Christmas shopping online too! Virgin Media's ultrafast 50Mb broadband means I can surf faster and download music and Strictly Come Dancing clips in a fraction of the time, which, when things are as busy as they are at the moment, helps make life a lot easier."

The 50Mb service will allow users to download an entire music album in as little as 11 seconds; a TV show in around a minute, a high quality movie in as little as 3½ minutes and a high definition movie in around fifteen minutes. The increased performance also means that multiple users can be on the internet at the same time, all with a fantastic experience, making it perfect for families, working couples, home-workers as well as individuals wanting the best in broadband. To find out more please visit www.virginmedia.com/50

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For further information/photography, please contact Sophie Smallwood/Toby Steele

on 020 7693 6999 or virginmedia@frankpr.it

News from Premier Inn

BRITAIN’S GREENEST HOTEL TO OPEN THIS DECEMBER

On Monday 8th December Britain’s greenest hotel will be opened by Premier Inn, the UK’S largest budget hotel chain. The hotel will set the standard for environmentally friendly hotels.

Guests at the 20-bed Premier Inn Tamworth (Staffordshire) will enjoy the same facilities and amenities as at a ‘normal’ Premier Inn but with the knowledge that they are sleeping ‘green’. Rooms will still cost from just £53 per night.

The building materials and technology used in the new hotel are not matched anywhere else in Britain and have been heralded as an example to other hotel chains by The Carbon Trust. The hotel will reduce energy use by 80% vs. a standard hotel; thanks to radically different approaches to heating, cooling, lighting and ventilation.

Premier Inn has over 550 hotels in the UK and says this new site at Tamworth is a flagship site for the company to trial the best green technologies available, to see which are viable for their hotels in future - a move welcomed by Building Research Establishment (BRE).

Key features of Britain’s greenest hotel include:

1. Natural Energy From the Earth – ground-source heat pumps will use the earth’s natural energy to cool and heat rooms and provide hot water throughout the hotel.
2. Re-using Water - toilets flushed with recycled water from showers and baths will save 20% of the hotel’s entire water usage and will provide 100% of the hotel’s toilet water usage
3. Inventive Insulation – sustainable sheep’s wool from British sheep is used in the walls to create exceptionally efficient thermal and acoustic insulation
4. Clever Lighting – low energy Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting with motion sensors ensures lights are only on when needed – an energy saving of 80%.
5. Here Comes the Sun - solar panels will heat bath water

Staff at the new hotel will be trained to understand the technologies behind the design and to help with minimising everyday energy and water consumption, such as in washing, water usage, excessive heating or cooling.

Guests will be able to see the energy saved as part of a visual display in the hotel lobby, as well as learn about the technologies that have gone into the new building.

Alan Parker, CEO of Premier Inn’s parent company Whitbread, says “This hotel is truly ground-breaking in that this combination of technologies has never been used before in any hotel in the UK, let alone a budget one. We chose from a range of technologies that we believe deliver the most positive social and environmental impact on future hotel buildings.

As well as designing the hotel to be energy efficient, we will also be involving our team members and customers in the green challenge. This is a unique joint approach which we will be testing in Tamworth as a first step to making more green changes across our hotel estate.”
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For more information, images or to interview a spokesperson from Premier Inn, please contact Lisa Rebak or Katy Stolliday at Frank PR on 0207 693 6999, or e-mail premierinn@frankpr.it

Notes to editors

About Premier Inn … Premier Inn is the UK’s biggest and fastest-growing hotel brand with over 550 budget hotels and more than 38,000 rooms across the UK. Premier Inn bedrooms are 22m² and feature en-suite bathroom, TV, and internet access for business guests. Premier Inn offers customers a ‘Good Night Guarantee’ of a good quality room, comfortable surroundings and friendly service, which is unique amongst Britain’s leading hotel chains.

Premier Inn, part of Whitbread plc, was the first Britain-wide hotel group to sign up with national tourist board VisitBritain; this means Premier Inn is now part of a new quality assessment scheme, specially created for budget accommodation.

A joint venture with Emirates has seen the Premier Inn brand develop in the Gulf region, with its first budget hotel in Dubai in Spring 2008. Premier Inn also has a joint venture with Emar-MGF to roll out 80 budget hotels in India by 2017. On a domestic front, Premier Inn is set to be the largest provider of budget hotels in London by the time of the 2012 Olympics.

Premier Inn has been confirmed as the leading Economy brand in the JD Power European Economy Hotel Guest Satisfaction Survey 2008. Premier Inn was awarded Best Budget Hotel at the Business Traveller Awards 2008.

www.premierinn.com

News from Premier Inn

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS…
AT LEAST AN HOUR IN FRONT OF THE MIRROR, SAYS BRITAIN’S MEN


Metrosexual males will be hogging the hairdryer this Christmas, with 90% saying they undertake a total of 22 pampering rituals, taking at least an hour, before a night out.

The research revealed today by Britain’s largest and fastest growing hotel chain, Premier Inn, shows the days of a quick shower, shave and splash of Brut are long gone.

Some of the more unexpected beauty rituals guys admitted to in the poll include trimming their nether regions, plucking their eyebrows and wearing their trusty pulling pants.

The research proves that the metrosexual male is as strong as ever, and for one in ten men an hour is just not long enough, with their beautifying regimes lasting up to 4 hours. That’s nearly 7 million hours[1] of mirror monopolising by men this December.

Premier Inn Marketing Director, Steve Conway, said: ‘A large number of guests staying with us in the run up to Christmas will be planning to attend a festive celebration. With an en-suite bathroom, hairdryers, big bath towels and full length mirrors available in every Premier Inn room, both men and women will have everything they need to make sure they are looking their best.”

Scots come top of the beautifying charts, with 92% of them taking well over an hour to prepare for a night on the tiles.

For the capital’s fashionistas, picking an outfit poses the biggest dilemma with nearly 80% of Londoners trying on several outfits to ensure they are looking their best.

The residents of Cardiff are keen to impress, with a third taking up to 4 hours to get ready and 1 in 5 trimming their nether regions before a night on the tiles – that’s twice as many as the national average!

And the nation’s natural beauties, taking the least amount of time to get ready, are the Brummies with more than one in three of them getting ready for a big night out in less than 30 minutes.

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For more information please contact Carly Hewitt, Lisa Rebak or Katy Stolliday
on 0207 693 6999 or email premierinn@frankpr.it

Notes to editors:
Premier Inn, winner of Best Budget Hotel at the Business Traveller Awards 2008, is the UK’s largest and fastest-growing hotel brand with over 500 budget hotels and more than 36,016 rooms across the UK. Premier Inn bedrooms are 22m² and feature en-suite bathroom, TV, and internet access for business guests. Premier Inn offers customers a ‘Good Night Guarantee’ of a good quality room, comfortable surroundings and friendly service, which is unique amongst Britain’s leading hotel chains.

Premier Inn was the first Britain-wide hotel group to sign up with national tourist board VisitBritain; this means Premier Inn is now part of a new quality assessment scheme, specially created for budget accommodation.

A joint venture with Emirates has seen the Premier Inn brand develop in the Gulf region, with its first budget hotel in Dubai in Spring 2008. Premier Inn also has a joint venture with Emar-MGF to roll out 80 budget hotels in India by 2017. On a domestic front, Premier Inn is set to be the largest provider of budget hotels in London by the time of the 2012 Olympics.

Premier Inn has been confirmed as the leading Economy brand in the JD Power European Economy Hotel Guest Satisfaction Survey 2008.

www.premierinn.com
[1] Based on 10% of the adult male population taking over an hour to get ready for an average of attending three parties this December

News from Brylcreem

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE HAIRY
Boris, Brand & Ross take the Brylcreem Best & Worst Celebrity Hairstyle Awards 2008

10th December 2008, The British public has decided that Boris Johnson has the best celebrity hair of 2008. Continuing his popularity with voters, London Mayor Boris Johnson has secured a surprise second victory to close the year, topping the style stakes and being crowned Brylcreem Best Celebrity Hairstyle Award, 2008. Meanwhile, Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross have another reason to feel red-faced, being named 1st and 2nd respectively in the Worst Celebrity Hairstyles of 2008.

The research, carried out to celebrate the 7th annual Brylcreem National Men’s Hair Week, questioned people from across the UK to find out which male celebrities score best and worst in the hairstyle stakes.

Commenting on his win, Boris Johnson said: “I'm baffled but delighted by this award. Thank you very much to everyone who voted for me. I’m afraid that other people probably pay more attention to my barnet than I do and over the years I’ve had various suggestions for what to do with it including a Mohawk. However, the Johnson hairstyle is, I fear, impossible to imitate, as it is a product of random and competing forces of nature.”

GMTV’s Ben Shepherd, who plays it stylishly safe with a short back and sides scooped second place while it is Prince Harry who picks up 3rd , beating his brother Prince William who the public voted among the Worst (11th), to be in line to the style throne.

Meanwhile, house wives favourite John Sergeant might have hung up his dancing shoes but his sense of self expression continues to earn the public’s approval as he waltzes his way into the top ten of Best.

Heading up the Worst, Brand and Ross may be keeping low profiles following the Sachsgate storm, but their taste is once again called into question as their unique hair-dos lead them to be jointly named bottom of the style stakes.

And while Simon Cowell will be feeling chuffed to have his protégée Eoghan Quigg reach the X Factor final this weekend, the mentor seems to be doing little favour in setting up the 16 year old to top the style charts, with them both sporting Worst Celebrity Hairstyles.

On the sports field, Manchester United goal-machine Wayne Rooney and BBC Sports Personality nominee Andy Murray appear to have spent too much time picking up trophies at the expense of looking in the mirror, coming in 3rd and 8th respectively.

Best Celebrity Hair 2008:
Boris Johnson
Ben Shepherd
Prince Harry
James McAvoy
Peter Jones
Guy Ritchie
Alex Zane
Danny Cipriani
Kevin Pietersen
John Sergeant

Worst Celebrity Hair 2008:
Russell Brand
Jonathan Ross
Wayne Rooney
Gordon Brown
Simon Cowell
Eoghan Quigg
Pete Doherty
Andy Murray
Rhys Ifans
Robert Kilroy Silk

Although Boris says his hair is impossible to imitate, Brylcreem Style Director Louis Byrne gives his advice on how to achieve ‘The Boris’:

“Underneath that messy exterior there is a strong, structured haircut which forms the foundations of Boris’s look. The length of the hair is left long with lots of texture cut in to it, this creates the loose frayed edges and undone quality. When styling, the key is to use a long-lasting non greasy hair paste, like Brylcreem’s antiStyler, to help hold the texture and cut of the hair.”