Puma Hotels plc (formerly Dawnay Shore Hotels plc) was established in July 2004 as a specialist vehicle to acquire portfolios of UK hotels. The Company’s initial strategy was to own and operate four star regional hotels, with the objective of securing enhanced returns for its investors through value added asset management.

Puma Hotels plc is not itself quoted, but The Hotel Corporation (AIM: HCP) was established as a publicly quoted feeder vehicle for investment in Puma Hotels and owns circa 49% of Puma Hotels.
Puma Hotels has so far acquired 20 major leisure and conference hotels across Scotland, Northern England, Central England, Southern England and Wales.  The hotels owned by the Company include the Lygon Arms in the Cotswolds, the Carlton Hotel in Edinburgh, The Marine in Troon, The Majestic in Harrogate, The Imperial on Torquay, The Imperial in Blackpool and the Hinckley Hotel in Leicestershire.  The properties are mostly held freehold with three on long leasehold with very modest ground rents.
The hotels offer extensive banqueting, conference and leisure facilities and many of them have architectural and historical significance. The Group has some 2,872 bedrooms and around 20,000 square metres of conference and meeting space and offers extensive facilities to both corporate and leisure guests.

In September 2007, Puma Hotels agreed to lease (for a 45 year period) its assets and transfer its operating business to Barceló, a privately owned leading Spanish hotels company with global operations.  The hotels owned by Puma Hotels now trade under the Barceló brand and therefore benefit from Barceló’s international marketing and management skills. The activities of Barcelό include the management and operation of over 182 hotels across more than 15 countries under an ownership, leasing or management basis as well as operation of retail travel agencies. The Barcelό Group also promotes projects broadly related to the tourism and hotel industries, owning shares in other companies. The Barcelό Group carries out its activities in Spain, the United States, the Dominican republic, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, , Mexico, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Switzerland, among other countries.

As a result of the lease to Barceló, Puma Hotels has become a specialist property company with a contracted rising rental stream, inflation indexed but also benefiting from growth in the profitability of the hotels.  The future plans of Puma Hotels are to seek to exploit the substantial real estate potential of the existing portfolio through the addition of rooms and other facilities.  The Company is also actively looking for bolt-on acquisitions which are a strategic fit with the existing portfolio or enhance shareholder value.
As of 23 July 2008, Shore Capital Limited acts as the exclusive portfolio manager for Puma Hotels plc and Howard Shore chairs the company's board of directors.