The Dorchester owner returns to the black
The owner of five-star London hotel The Dorchester has returned to the black despite its revenue falling in 2024.
New accounts filed with Companies House show the Dorchester Group posted a pre-tax profit of £3.1m for its latest financial year.
The total is up from the pre-tax loss of £5.2m that it fell to in 2023.
Over the same period, the group’s revenue slipped from £464.2m to £458.7m.
The group said that while its revenue increased in 2024, “inflationary pressure and the ongoing renovation at the group’s flagship The Dorchester had a negative impact on profit margins.”
It added that its total loss for the year of £1m includes a hit of £16m from the revaluation of the group’s hotels and investment property.
Losses widen at The Dorchester hotel itself
The group is also behind Hotel Plaza Athenee and Le Meurice in Paris, Hotel Principe di Savoia in Milan, Hotel Eden in Room, Hotel Bel-Air and The Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.
Its leased properties include Coworth Park in Ascot and 45 Park Lane in London. The group also includes two commercial properties in the USA.
The group is owned by the Brunei Investment Agency, an arm of the Ministry of Finance of Brunei.
In 2024, the group’s occupancy rate was 48 per cent, a rise of one per cent, while the average room rate decreased from £1,131 to £1,085.
In separately filed accounts, The Dorchester hotel itself posted a revenue of £73.7m for the year, up from £67.6m.
However, its pre-tax loss widened from £20.6m to £22.5m.
The results for The Dorchester come after City PM recently reported that its rival Claridge’s slipped into the red despite its revenue rising during its latest financial year.
For 2024, the hotel posted a pre-tax loss of £5.4m, down from the £7.2m pre-tax profit it achieved in 2023.
However its revenue rose over the same period from £119.3m to £136.9m.