Swallow buys 20 hotels for £75m

Swallow Hotels continued its aggressive expansion programme, spending £75m on 20 new hotels.

Seventeen of the hotels were in Scotland, making it the biggest Scottish hotel deal of the year so far.

The hotels were owned by North British Trust Group (NBTG) which sold the properties to focus on the adventure tourism hotel market.

NBTG has retained only four properties, in Oban, Inverary, Strathpeffer and the Isle of Mull.

NBTG's managing director Paddy Crerar admitted the sale was sooner than anticipated. "The strategic decision was taken to reduce the size of the group and have a smaller number of high quality hotels. which are well-placed to take advantage of the trend for ‘adventure tourism'."

Swallow's new properties include Scarborough, Harrogate and Doncaster in England, and Edinburgh, Skye, Ullapool, Pitlochry and Inverness in Scotland.

Swallow now operates 112 hotels.

The deal was handled by Christie & Co and should complete on 1 August.