Savills lists Crerar Hotels' ten hotels for £90m
The Scottish and Lake District portfolio is on the market for £90m, and Savills has already put individual prices on three of the ten hotels.
Crerar Hotels' ten-strong portfolio of Scottish and Lake District properties is up for sale at £90m, with Savills handling the process for owner Blantyre Capital.
The ten hotels run from 42 to 100 rooms each, spread from the Isle of Mull to Nairn. Savills is offering the group as a whole portfolio, in sub-portfolios, or hotel by hotel.
Blantyre Capital bought the group with Fairtree Hotel Investments in 2023. Less than four years on, it is testing the market for an exit.
A strong platform from which to capture further growth in Scotland's luxury hospitality market
Three prices already on record
Some individual values are already public. Thainstone House in Inverurie, a 27-key property, carries a £2.5m price tag. Balmoral Arms in Ballater, 46 rooms, went to market over the summer valued at more than £3.25m. Glencoe Inn, 20 bedrooms, is listed at offers above £2.25m.
The other six hotels carry no published valuation: Dunkeld House in Perthshire, Golf View Hotel & Spa in Nairn, Isle of Mull Hotel & Spa in Craignure, Loch Fyne Hotel & Spa in Inveraray, Oban Bay hotel and Fonab Castle hotel in Pitlochry. The Lake District's Daffodil Hotel & Spa in Grasmere is the only English entry in an otherwise Scottish set.
Savills describes all ten as four- and five-star properties and has not given a deadline for offers.
A bet on Scotland's luxury trade
Steven Fyfe, director of hotel capital markets at Savills, called the sale "a rare opportunity to acquire a substantial portfolio of luxury country house hotels." He said it offers a buyer "a strong platform from which to capture further growth in Scotland's luxury hospitality market" — the same trade that recently saw Edinburgh's Panda & Sons win a best cocktail menu award.
Whether a buyer wants the whole set or just the trophy assets will decide how the sale plays out. A single buyer keeps staff and systems intact across ten sites; a break-up could value the flagship properties higher than the £90m group guide suggests.
