Arcadian swaps two hotels for one

Arcadian International has acquired the Priest House Hotel, near Castle Donnington, Leicestershire, in an unconventional hotel swap deal which valued the property at £3.52m.

Priest House owners, Phillip Humphreys and Glyn Newman, are to take two of Arcadian's smaller hotels and the balance of £1.61m in cash as payment for the property.

The two properties, Stonehouse Court in Gloucestershire and Stanwell House in Hampshire, each of which has 37 bedrooms, will continue to be operated by Arcadian under a management contract.

For Humphreys and Newman, the deal enables them to raise some cash without severing all their connections with the hotel business.

"We are going to spend six months travelling the world, and then we will decide what to do with the new hotels," Mr Humphreys told Caterer. "We may come back and manage them or we may sell them - who knows?" The Arcadian contract has a six-month notice period for termination.

For Arcadian the deal is another step in its strategy to develop a chain of country house-style properties. It follows its purchase last year of Clipper Hotels and two former Hidden hotels.

The 45-bedroom Priest House Hotel, which was being marketed by Christie & Co, is a Grade II-listed Georgian building located in a 54-acre estate on the banks of the River Trent.

Messrs Humphreys and Newman bought the property nearly seven years ago when it had just 14 bedrooms and have since developed it into a successful three-star hotel which last year hosted more than 100 weddings.