QMH to sell two London hotels for £28m

Hotel group Queens Moat Houses (QMH) has admitted that it is selling two of its London hotels. The company has put the three-star, 96-bedroom Kensington Moat House hotel and the four-star, 105-bedroom Sloane Square Moat House hotel up for sale with a price tag believed to be in the region of £28m.

Trading at QMH has been tough for a couple of years, with the 11 September terrorist attacks, global economic slowdown, war in Iraq and the Sars epidemic all having a negative impact on business.

In the 12 months to 29 December 2002, QMH recorded a pre-tax loss of £3.8m, compared with a profit of £4.5m for the same period a year earlier. Turnover dipped by 3.1% to £324.4m.

Since the beginning of 2003 trading has continued to be difficult. In the first four months of this year turnover within the group’s UK division fell by almost 6%, with turnover at its hotels in the Netherlands down by 9.7% and sales at its German hotels down by 16%.

QMH operates about 90 hotels, 40 of which are in the UK.