Featured Property of the Week

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The Ferry Inn
OIRO £750,000 

The Royal Hotel
OIRO £550,000

THE OPPORTUNITY to acquire all of the business of the Ferry Inn and Royal Hotel in Stromness continues to present 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 en-suite bedrooms with a further six en-suite rooms in the Harbourside House annex, which is currently leased.

Both hotels have 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 six 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.ferryinn.com and www.royalhotelstromness.com.

The hotels are now also offered as separate lots.  The Royal at OIRO £550,000 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 ten en-suite bedrooms. 

The Ferry Inn at OIRO £750,000 offers: 18 en-suite 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 Ferry Inn may also be available to lease, and enquiries regarding leasing options are invited.

While there is opportunity for new owners to grow trade by reopening the kitchen at the Royal, reintroducing lunch services at the Ferry Inn, and extending bar and food service hours, the reduced operations, as currently structured, recorded combined net sales of £1.5m in the last financial year.

Full management information, certified extract accounts and support with business planning and finance, are available to prospective buyers.

Interested parties should contact Gareth Crichton on: garethcrichton@btinternet.com or approach Karen Scholes in confidence at: karen@scholesca.co.uk