The site of Tenby’s former Royal Gatehouse Hotel has been acquired by the UK’s largest hotel chain.

Premier Inn has confirmed that it is planning to open a 61-bedroomed hotel and restaurant on the prime seafront site, which has been an eyesore in Tenby since the Royal Gatehouse was devastated by a huge fire in March 2008.

Construction will begin in December and the hotel will create approximately 45 jobs on opening.

The Tenby site is one of six new sites recently acquired by Premier Inn in south west England and South Wales. Construction is already underway on nine other sites, including Barry Island and Weston-supermare.

Whitbread, Premier Inn’s parent company, hopes to increase its 49,000 bedrooms across the UK today to 65,000 by 2016.

Whitbread’s head of acquisitions, John Bates, said that Premier Inn is ‘expanding aggressively across the UK’ in response to “strong demand and our customers’ desire for more Premier Inn bedrooms in more great locations”.

The investment would be good news for the region, he added, creating jobs and attracting extra visitors.