Alias hotels chain sold for £30m

Bristol-based hotel chain Alias has been bought by commercial and hotel property firm GuestInvest for £30.4m.

The surprise move comes just three months after its owner LHM said it had planned to expand the Alias chain from five to 15 hotels over the next five years.

However LHM and Alias founders Nigel Chapman and Nicholas Dickinson are not pulling out from the chain completely, as they intend to maintain, and will even increase, their personal stakes.

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The Kandinsky

GuestInvest is buying all five hotels, with its swoop following the opening of its own first hotel, Guesthouse West in London's Notting Hill, in March. Alias' hotels include the Rossetti in Manchester, the Kandinsky in Cheltenham, the Seattle in Brighton, Barcelona in Exeter and, from spring 2006, the St Louis in Liverpool. GuestInvest operates a scheme whereby investors buy their own room in a hotel. They can stay there for up to 52 nights a year and receive a return on their investment, at the same time allowing the hotel to let the room out for the rest of the year. It intends to announce its plans for the Alias rooms in the next few weeks, it said. GuestInvest owner Johnny Sandelson said, while the deal would keep the company busy over the autumn, future acquisitions after that could not be ruled out. "We are looking at things very aggressively, but this is a very good next step for us," he said. The brand and management would remain unchanged by its new owners, he added. A week after announcing its ambitious plans for Alias, LHM admitted it would have to put them on hold because it had been unable to spin off its Luxury Family Hotels properties. Following today's deal, Chapman described the acquisition as a "marriage made in heaven". He added: "This deal solves the challenge of matching a burgeoning retail brand with real estate - which is a long-term investment." A spokesman for Alias said it was now still intended that the chain would expand to become 15-strong within five years. by Nic Paton Buy this week's *Caterer* magazine for more industry news and analysis