Swallow hotels taken off the market

The Swallow Group of hotels has been taken off the market by owners Whitbread because the four offers made to buy the chain had been "inappropriately low."

Whitbread has been trying to sell the group of 13 hotels, predominantly in North East England, for two-and-a-half years.

The decision was made this week. But operations director of the Swallow Group, Peter Bech said the hotels could be up for sale again as soon as March 2003. "Now is not a good time to be selling a group of hotels, and Whitbread is not going to undersell such an asset," he said.

Swallow has just submitted its annual operating budget which, with the appointment of a full-time sales and marketing director, will focus on attracting local corporate business.

Bech denied that the ongoing uncertainty about Swallow's ownership had affected staff morale. He said all general managers were very motivated to increase the hotels' performance.

In 1999 Whitbread bought the 60-strong Swallow chain for £578m from Sunderland based Vaux brewery, which closed in the same year. Since then, it has re-branded the majority of the chain as either Marriott hotels or Travel Inns.

The 13 hotels which were deemed unsuitable for re-branding because of their location or size are in Stockton, Dundee, Glasgow, Newcastle, Gateshead, Chollerford near Hexham, Carlisle, Preston, Durham, Rushyford, Harrogate, Ipswich, and Old Harlow.

by Ben Walker