Hotel acquisition sourcing across the UK and Southern Europe

A useful hotel brief states the locations, the approximate room count, the indicative budget range, the operating model the buyer can work with and the timing. Each of these is an assessment consideration: they let a hotel be ruled in or out before anyone spends time on detail.

The brief should also say what the buyer will not consider, for example a branded hotel when the buyer intends to operate independently, or a property needing major works when the buyer wants immediate trading. Hotels are reviewed against that written brief before anything is shared, and a hotel that does not fit is not put forward simply to keep activity moving.

An operating hotel is sold with its business running: staff, bookings, suppliers and trading records continue through the sale. A hotel offered with vacant possession is sold empty, which suits buyers who intend to install their own operator or convert the building.

Some buyers look for hotels to reposition, through refurbishment, a change of brand or a different market position. For an operating hotel the trading history and contracts matter as much as the building; for vacant possession or repositioning, condition, permitted use and the likely capital expenditure come first. Any repositioning idea is a possibility for the buyer's own advisers to test, not an expected outcome.

Before an introduction is proposed we ask the seller for location, room count and facilities, operating status, any trading information they are willing to share, and what is known about capital expenditure, meaning spending on the building and its fittings rather than day-to-day costs: roofs, plant, bedrooms, kitchens and furniture and equipment that wear out on a cycle.

This information is presented as the seller's, for the buyer's own surveyors, accountants and lawyers to verify. Sensitive documents are shared only once authority and confidentiality have been agreed.

Many hotels are run by a third-party operator under a management agreement, trade under a brand through a franchise agreement, or are leased to an operator who pays rent. These agreements can run for many years and may limit what a new owner can change.

We ask early how the hotel is owned, whether such agreements exist, how long they have left and whether the seller can share their main terms, so the buyer knows what would transfer with the hotel. We also confirm that the person we are speaking to owns the hotel or has written authority to discuss a sale.

Buyers can set out their hotel criteria through the acquisition requirements route. Owners and authorised representatives can introduce a hotel in confidence. No particular hotel is implied to be available; any opportunity is discussed only after it has been reviewed against a brief.