IF IT DOES NOT GET A BUYER within the next seven months, the Peach And Quiet Hotel in Inch Marlow, Christ Church, could close its doors by year-end.
This is according to Adrian Loveridge, co-owner of the 24-year-old multiple award-winning South Coast property, who told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY that since the hotel went on the market six months ago, five people have expressed serious interest in purchasing it “but the economic climate is such that very few people are investing in hotels at the moment”.
“This year, we decided we will close on April 17 and continue to maintain the property. Usually we would close at that time and then reopen, but we will close April 17 and maintain the property until a buyer comes along and if not by November, then we will close permanently,” he said in a telephone interview.
The hotel currently employs 11 people and is located on approximately 4.5 acres of land.
Last week it was announced that the Almond Beach Village would be closing at the end of this month, putting more than 500 people out of work as the owners of that property seek a buyer. The other two properties in that group – Almond Casuarina in Christ Church and Almond Beach Club in St James – are also up for sale.
Loveridge, who is a director of Peach and Quiet (Barbados) Limited, the company that owns his hotel, said should they find a buyer this year, the staff would be “fully compensated”.
“We have already built that into the equation so they would receive all outstanding moneys due to them in terms of holiday pay over the years and hopefully a small share of the sale of the property as well, but that will be subject to [our] realizing the value of the property and being able to sell it at what we feel it is worth,” he said.
The asking price is US$4.5 million.
Loveridge told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY that his putting the hotel up for sale was prompted by a number of factors. He said besides his and his wife’s ageing, concern about crime was one of the major reasons.
“If I am absolutely honest, we have had some crime issues in this area; we have had some serious safety and security and crime issues in this area over the last three or four years.
“I would not say it is the single factor, but it is one of the main factors added to our decision to sell,” he said.
“We’ve had Peach and Quiet for the last 24 years. We don’t feel the current climate is conducive to small properties. You may know that over the last 20 years about 32 hotels closed in Barbados, which is a staggering number. We have come to a stage where we are going to have to spend a great deal of money to reposition the hotel, which we do not have without borrowing it – whatever sort of interest rate that would entail.
We are getting to a stage, my wife and I who both own the hotel, we are both coming up to retirement age and we would like to see the hotel have new owners with a lot more injection of working capital and ideas to upgrade it and reposition it,” added Loveridge, who has over 46 years’ experience in the tourism sector.
He said that if they were to undertake the massive task of upgrading and “repositioning” the ageing 22-bedroom facility, it could cost them anywhere “between $2 million and $4 million”.
Although the small hotel was still profitable, Loveridge said, “We feel very strongly that our small hotels tend to be lower grade and they need to be uplifted, repositioned and upgraded to what they call ‘boutique hotels’, to a high level of service with spas, being able to spoil a small number of people and we don’t really feel that we have the energy to do that any longer.”
He said while it was no secret that the property was up for sale, it was not “advertised widely because we don’t feel there are people with those means on the island at the moment. We think it is more likely to go to a foreign investor”.
Loveridge said they have already notified the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) and the Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association (BHTA) of the company’s intention to sell the property.
