Britannia Hotels reports 19% increase in turnover

Britannia Hotels has reported a 19% increase in in turnover to £115.4m, five months after topping the list of the UK's worst hotel chains for the seventh year in a row.

The group of 61 provincial hotels also revealed profit before tax of £19.3m, a fall of nearly 7% year on year, according to the company's annual accounts for the year ended 31 March 2019 lodged at Companies House.

Seven new hotels were added to the company's portfolio during the reporting period including the 175-bedroom Coylumbridge hotel near Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands.

The group's strategic report stated that it is Britannia's policy "to increase profitability via tightly controlled management of costs".

In its annual hotel survey published in August 2019, consumer charity Which? reported that guests who stayed at Britannia described its hotels as "dirty" and "neglected" with 44% experiencing a problem during their stay. More than 8,000 people contributed to the survey.

Britannia Hotels was founded in 1976 by Alex Langsam with the acquisition of the 100-bedroom Country House hotel in Manchester, which has since gone on to be extended to 255-bedrooms.

Today the company's hotels include the Grand hotel, Scarborough; the Metropole, Blackpool; and the Adelphi, Liverpool.