Following last week's news that Queens Moat Houses chair, Stanley Metcalfe, is stepping down when his contract expires in September, the hotel group issued a profits warning yesterday.

After a warning in May, Queens Most Houses says that since then trading has weakened further in the UK and the Netherlands 'to a greater extent than anticipated'.

Analysts, who at the time of the AGM in May cut the profit forecast from £18m to £12m, slashed the figure to £7m. Shares fell 3.25p to 16.75p. Queens Moat Houses operates has 12,500-beds across 90 hotels in the UK, Germany and The Netherlands.