£2b REIT closes in on UK hotel market – For more hospitality stories, see what the weekend papers say

£2b REIT closes in on UK hotel market The property entrepreneur Richard Balfour-Lynn is working with Royal Bank of Scotland on plans to create a £2b real-estate investment trust (REIT) focused on the hotel sector. Balfour-Lynn has appointed Deutsche Bank to carry out a strategic review of his £1.3b hotel portfolio, which includes landmark properties such as the Grand in Brighton and Cavendish in Mayfair. The properties were acquired after his privately owned Alternative Hotel Group spent £767m to take the De VereSunday Times, 21 January

Jurys hotel group looking to sell budget brand
Jurys Doyle Hotel Group, the Dublin-based company taken private at the end of 2005, has hired advisers to look at a possible sale of its Jurys Inn brand worth up to €1bn (£657m). The company has appointed Merrill Lynch to consider a range of options for Jurys Inn, including splitting its underlying property assets from the operating arm. However, an outright sale is understood to be the likeliest outcome. - Irish Independent, 20 January

All Bar One losing female attraction
All Bar One set the trend for bars to be more attractive to women in the 1990s with big windows, light and space. The tide may be turning against the female-friendly bar concept because while they attract women, for some time now these bars have also been attracting young men who are looking for women. Anecdotal evidence suggests the attention is now putting some women off. - Scotland on Sunday](http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/), 21 January

£120m earmarked for conversion of stately home into leisure resort
A consortium including property developers is to transform Tottenham House, owned by the Earl of Cardigan, into a resort hotel. The redevelopment, in Wiltshire's Savernake Forest, is expected to cost up to £120m. - [Sunday Times](http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/), 21 January

O'Briens to push for pole position in UK sandwich market
Fiacra Nagle is determined to make the O'Briens sandwich brand dominant in the UK market. The Irish sandwich and coffee bar has just opened its 45th, and largest, unit in Scotland.Nagle said: "We're also quite high-end in terms of the market in that I don't think you'll get a Subway opening with coffee tables and leather couches. We're not the only ones who do that but I think we do it pretty well." - [Sunday Herald](http://www.sundayherald.com/), 21 January

By Bob Gledhill

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