Bank of Scotland is close to selling five hotels run by Queens Moat Houses (QMH) to a private investor for about £40m, according to The Times newspaper.
The prospective buyer is London-based property investor Maurice Gourgey.
The hotels comprise Holiday Inns in Bristol and Reading and Moat Houses in Wigan, Sheffield and Winchester.
QMH's management contract on the properties runs out in January and sources think Gourgey is unlikely to reappoint QMH to run them, even though the hotelier has done so for the past 10 years.
QMH said it had not yet had official confirmation that the hotels had been sold, adding that it would be delighted if it was asked to continue managing them.