Hotels for Sale London & Home Counties

For buyers looking for hotels for sale, London offers both the highest ingoing expenses, but also the highest room rates and the highest levels of occupancy. Hotels for sale in the Home Counties offer slightly better prices (although they are still high) but can still expect good levels of occupancy.

To find particular hotels for sale in London and the Home Counties, register with UK Pub Sales, a Suffolk-based business broker who specialise in the sale of hotels, pubs, restaurants, nightclubs and retail properties throughout the UK including London and the Home Counties.

To see our current range of Hotels for Sale London and Hotels for Sale Home Counties, click here.

Hotels for Sale London

There is a huge range of hotels available in London, ranging from budget hotels for students and cost-conscious tourists, right through to high-end luxury hotels with suites costing thousands of pounds per night. Hotels in London, especially in central London, can expect to be close to full all year round, catering for a constant stream of both tourist and business trade, estimated at around 25 million visitors per year. Although there was a downturn in visitors in 2008/2009, 2010 figures show that numbers are rising again. Room rates are high, even for basic hotels, and any spare rooms can easily generate additional income if let as meeting rooms. It is very easy for new or out of the way hotels to generate good levels of bookings, as there are several internet hotel booking systems which let guests find hotels within an area and within a particular budget – and there are always business or weekend visitors looking for London accommodation at short notice. All this makes the prospect of owning a London hotel very attractive to many.

Prospective buyers of hotels for sale in London will tend to be focused primarily on the business potential rather than thinking of it as a desirable lifestyle choice.

Freehold prices, especially for central London locations tend to be prohibitive for the individual private buyer, unless they can present a solid business case, and also have at least some personal money to invest. For instance, a modestly sized (a dozen rooms) B&B in London’s Belgravia will set you back between £1-5m. A larger central London hotel (40-100 rooms) will cost in the region of £20m.

Much lower prices are available if you consider areas which are further out from the centre but still within the area served by the London Underground – but this depends very much on how affluent the area is. For instance a small (9 rooms) hotel and restaurant in the Harrow area would cost in the region of £2m – very similar to central London prices.

By contrast, for about the same price you could buy a 22 room hotel in Stoke Newington.

There are also some surprising bargains available – for instance, an 8 room B&B close to Heathrow for £600k freehold. (Prices at April 2011)

Leasehold prices are obviously a lot less, but can still be in the hundreds of thousands, depending on size and location. A leasehold London hotel offers the hotelier the chance to benefit from the steady London trade but without the degree of financial investment. It may appeal to those wanting to generate high incomes for a few years before then investing the proceeds into a freehold hotel of their own.

For both freehold and leasehold properties, it helps greatly if you can take over an existing hotel with a proven revenue stream and bookings already in place, as this will make it easier to raise finance and/or create a realistic business plan.

Many hotels for sale in London may also include restaurants and bars/pubs. Many visitors, especially those staying over just one night to attend a business meeting, will look for a hotel where they can also get an evening meal and a drink without having to go outside the hotel. Having a public restaurant and/or bar in your hotel will also attract non-residents and helps to take revenue above the ceiling imposed by the number of rooms.

Hotels for Sale Home Counties

Hotels in the Home Counties tend not cater to holidaymakers staying in the area for a week or two. Instead they are much more likely to have guests who are staying for a day or two for business meetings or family events such as weddings. The tourists who do appear are likely to stay for a night or two to see local attractions before moving on.

The Home Counties are home to many large country house hotels which can be popular locations for weekend breaks and wedding receptions. Becoming known as a wedding reception location can be a very profitable market for a hotel which would perhaps not otherwise get a lot of passing trade. Many Home Counties hotels, in both town and country, have special amenities such as health clubs or spas. This enables a hotel to become a destination on its own, without depending on attractions in the local area to bring people in.

Prices of hotels in the Home Counties vary widely, as do room rates, and generally reflect the local property market. Very affluent areas such as St Albans will command prices which rival London. But travel out to somewhere such as the Essex coast or a small market town in Hertfordshire, and you can find much better value.

Many hotels in the Home Counties also provide restaurant and/or pub facilities to the local area, so be sure to check out pubs for sale with letting rooms also.