Featured Property of the Week
ADVERTORIAL: The Ferry Inn & Royal Hotel, Stromness
OIRO £1,300,000
(lease options may be available by negotiation)
A rare opportunity to acquire all of the business of the Ferry Inn and Royal Hotel in Stromness now presents as owners Karen and Gareth Crichton seek a retirement sale. The two popular hotels have operated jointly since 2017 when they were brought together to bring the benefits of scale, optimise staffing and management and to better respond to seasonal variations in trade. The resulting combined business generates excellent returns.
Between them the hotels offer 22 ensuite bedrooms with a further 6 ensuite rooms in the Harbourside House annex which is currently leased. Each hotel has a commercial kitchen with restaurant trade concentrated at the Ferry Inn, where on average 100 meals are served each evening during the main season. Both hotels offer popular bars with the Royal currently operating seasonally. The business also has its own staff accommodation, with the former Hamnavoe Hostel providing up to 6 staff rooms under lease.
The hotels have seen considerable refurbishment under the current owners with the bedrooms, kitchen and bars achieving consistently high levels of trade and strong forward bookings for 2024 and 2025. The hotels have modern business systems which include cloud-based EPOS, room and table reservations and online accounting. Business sales are through established OTAs and traditional travel trade as well as through its own websites at: www.orkneyislandhotels.com, www.ferryinn.com and www.royalhotelstromness.com.
The Ferry Inn offers: 18 ensuite bedrooms (including the leased Harbourside House annex), commercial kitchen, 90 cover restaurant and bar, beer cellar racked for cask ale dispense, outside licensed area and car park. The Royal offers: popular public bar, comfortable 40 cover lounge bar, well-appointed 26 cover dining/breakfast room, function room/sports bar seating up to 70 with licensed outdoor area, commercial kitchen and 10 ensuite bedrooms (currently 2 singles, 1 family, 2 twin, 5 doubles).
While there is opportunity for new owners to reopen the kitchen at the Royal, reintroduce lunch services, and extend bar and food service hours, the reduced operation as currently structured recorded net sales of £1.4m in the last financial year.
Full management information, certified extract accounts and support with business planning and finance are available to prospective buyers. Lease-to-buy options may also be available subject to negotiation.
Interested parties should contact Gareth Crichton on: garethcrichton@btinternet.com or approach Karen Scholes in confidence at: karen.scholes@scholesca.co.uk.