Hotelier Neville Allen has bought the Geisha hotel in the seaside resort of Clacton-on-the-Sea along the North Essex coast.
Allen formerly owned the Bull hotel in Woodbridge, Suffolk.
The three-storey Geisha hotel occupies a corner on the junction of Marine Parade and Orwell Road facing the pier and is a short distance from the shopping arcade and the town centre.
It provides 15 en-suite bedrooms, a 65-seat public bar, an 80-seat restaurant/function room and a small games room with a pool table and darts board.
The business, which trades all year round, also incorporates two three-bedroom holiday apartments along with a two-bedroom flat with a sea-facing balcony for the owners.
The Ipswich office of Christie + Co sold the freehold off a guide price of £1.2m on behalf of the two couples, the Smiths and the Macks, who have run the hotel for the past four years.
By Angela Frewin