Portland Hotels eyes UK expansion

The hotel group reported a 4.5 per cent rise in turnover to £15.52m for the year to 26 January 2014. Profit before tax increased 20 per cent to £2.6m, prompting the company to look for further investment opportunities.

Colin Paton, founder of Portland Hotels said: “In a market that looks only now to be improving, the trading performance of the group continues to be exceptional. In many of our properties we have been able to outperform inflation – a difficult task in the hotel sector.

“With a market in better shape than it has been for many years and favourable banking facilities, we are well placed and actively seeking to expand our portfolio. In the interests of balancing risk the group seeks sensible, multiple acquisitions throughout the UK.”

Rate improvement​

Annualised group occupancies were slightly up on the previous year at nearly 80%, but Paton said real growth had been driven by a rate improvement. Room yield reached £52.68, up over 5.5 per cent. 

“Our ongoing investment in well-managed and robust IT and associated CRM systems has allowed us to develop a deeper understanding of our customers’ needs and react accordingly. This strong customer-focused ethos, together with robust sales, marketing, and revenue management underpins our success. Our ability to deliver consistent and successive improvements in room yield is testament to this.”

The group maintained its investment programme, bringing capex, excluding acquisition costs, to £8.6m over the past ten years.

“Our forward outlook remains prudent taking into consideration the inevitable interest rate increases and the impact on non-domestic tourism of the strengthening UK pound.”