De Vere Group has announced it is feeling the pinch caused by a weakening consumer demand for leisure breaks.

The hotel operator’s pre-tax profits for the first half, ending 27 March, were unchanged at £19.3m, while turnover was down slightly on the year before, from £154.3m to £154.2m.

A surge in business travel offset the decline in the group’s leisure travel margins, and like for like RevPAR was up 5.8 per cent for the period.

Peter Daresbury, chair, said: “We are seeing some softening in leisure demand, although this is being mitigated by a strong corporate sector.

Our brands are being refined in line with customer needs to drive loyalty and our new reservations infrastructure is starting to open new distribution channels.”

The company, which sold the De Vere Belfry for £186m in March in a sale and manage back deal to Quinn Group, announced it had secured approval for a 41-room extension at Dunston Hall in Suffolk.

De Vere also aims to almost double its portfolio of Village Hotels over the next four years.