Overview
Premier Inn, the UK’s largest hotel chain with over 85,000 rooms across the country, faced a significant technological challenge brought about by the UK’s transition away from legacy analogue telephone networks. With 1,100 lift alarms spread across a wide-ranging portfolio of hotels in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands, the business needed a managed, resilient, and forward-looking alternative to PSTN connections. Ensuring passenger safety, maintaining compliance, and achieving cost control were all central priorities.
This case study sets out how Premier Inn, supported by VerticA Consulting and MEMCO (a brand of AVIRE), successfully navigated the migration of its lift alarm portfolio.
VerticA Consulting is a specialist lift consultancy with long-standing expertise in project management, modernisation, and maintenance oversight across the UK and beyond.
MEMCO by AVIRE has been a trusted global supplier of lift safety and communication solutions since 1972, with a reputation for innovation and reliability.
The Challenge
The nationwide switch-off of analogue telephone lines, scheduled for completion by January 2027, created an urgent risk for Premier Inn’s operations. Two technical risks stood out:
- Analogue signalling support – Most digital providers could not reliably handle the DTMF signalling used by traditional autodiallers. Without robust signalling, emergency calls from lift passengers could fail to connect.
- Power resilience – Copper telephone lines carried their own power supply, but digital lines depend on mains electricity. This meant that in the event of a power cut, a situation where lift entrapments are more likely, the line itself could fail.
On top of these risks, Premier Inn’s scale brought unique complications. The estate included more than a thousand lifts in diverse types of buildings, maintained by several contractors across multiple territories. Operationally, the lack of a reliable asset list for telephone lines compounded the problem: lines were sometimes cancelled or reallocated without notice, and issues were frequently misdiagnosed, creating delays and unnecessary expense.
This was not simply a technical issue but a logistical and management challenge that required a comprehensive solution.
The Solution
Premier Inn turned to its long-term lift consultancy partner, VerticA Consulting, to identify and evaluate alternatives. After extensive research and comparison, MEMCO’s SENTINEL Service was selected as the solution capable of meeting both the technical and operational needs of the business.
The SENTINEL Service met every one of the key selection criteria:
- Reliability – By replacing fixed copper lines with a 4G VoLTE gateway supported by a roaming SIM, the system could connect to any mobile network, maximising coverage. An onboard battery provided up to four hours of backup in the event of power failure, and the system fully supported analogue signalling.
- Management – SENTINEL offered continuous monitoring and remote diagnostics. A complete digital asset list was created, supported by a full audit trail of connections, giving Premier Inn visibility and control. Proactive alerts meant that problems could be resolved quickly, often before they escalated into incidents.
- Established expertise – MEMCO’s long-standing role in the lift industry meant the company could work seamlessly with multiple contractors while providing reassurance of proven reliability.
- Cost certainty – SENTINEL was delivered on a fixed-fee basis, covering both installation and ongoing service. Premier Inn could therefore budget accurately without risk of hidden or escalating costs.
- End-to-end project delivery – Using Premier Inn’s existing maintenance contractors, MEMCO was able to coordinate a standardised installation process across all sites, supported by VerticA’s oversight and specifications.
Deployment
The migration was a large-scale programme covering 570 individual hotel sites and six different lift contractors. Preparatory work involved building a definitive list of lifts and appliances requiring alarms. Platform lifts, for example, were reviewed on a case-by-case basis, as not all required alarm systems.
The deployment process included:
- Agreement of consistent installation specifications across the contractor base.
- Training of engineers on MEMCO equipment to ensure quality and reliability.
- Use of a mobile application to test connections and capture legacy telephone numbers for decommissioning.
- Deployment of high-gain antennas and directional antennas at sites where signal quality was poor.
- A seven-day monitoring period for each installation to ensure stability of mobile signal and mains power.
Challenges were inevitable across such a broad portfolio. At Heathrow Terminal 4, for instance, low signal strength caused by proximity to airport radar equipment had to be overcome using directional antennas. At Canary Wharf, extremely weak signals on upper floors required the installation of extended cabling to position gateways at lower levels. These examples highlighted the adaptability of the solution and the collaborative problem-solving between contractors, VerticA, and MEMCO.
By late 2024, 80% of connections had been migrated successfully. This rose to 90% by March 2025, with the full programme completed by July 2025.
Results & Benefits
The completed migration delivered a wide range of benefits to Premier Inn:
- Safety and resilience – Fully managed, monitored connections that provide reliable performance even during power outages.
- Operational efficiency – Real-time monitoring and diagnostics reduced the number of unnecessary call-outs, saving time and improving contractor efficiency.
- Cost savings – The project achieved an estimated 25% reduction in costs compared with digital telephone line and UPS alternatives.
- Improved asset management – For the first time, Premier Inn had a complete, digital record of its lift alarm connections, ensuring that legacy lines could be cancelled with confidence.
- Proactive fault detection – SENTINEL identified faulty autodiallers that were unnecessarily generating alarm calls, preventing wasted costs and highlighting where replacements were needed.
- Stronger collaboration – The project led to new, clearly defined ways of working between Premier Inn, contractors, and MEMCO, improving communication and accountability.
“This project is a testament to what true collaboration can achieve. By working seamlessly across suppliers, contractors, consultants and the client team, we were able to overcome complex challenges and deliver expectation — all without disrupting ongoing operations, the team from AVIRE took the challenge and delivered as promised.”
— Chris Holmes, Technical Director, VerticA Consulting Limited
Looking Ahead
With the migration nearing completion, Premier Inn now operates one of the largest fully managed lift alarm estates in the UK and Ireland. The business has not only addressed the risks posed by the analogue switch-off but has also gained enhanced resilience, greater visibility, and more predictable operating costs.
VerticA and MEMCO continue to support Premier Inn with ongoing monitoring, battery replacements, and proactive maintenance insights. The project stands as a benchmark for how large-scale transitions can be delivered through collaboration, innovation, and rigorous planning.
“Digital transformation isn’t just about replacing one technology with another. It’s about improving reliability, visibility and safety while reducing administrative burden for the client.”
— Matthew Davies, Business Development Manager – Digital & Services, MEMCO by AVIRE
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