How long does it take to sell a hotel?

A time frame quoted before seeing the file would be a promise, and we do not make them. Two comparable hotels can sell at very different speeds. One has clean accounts, a long lease and a buyer whose financing is in place. The other is waiting for a franchisor’s consent and discovers a compliance programme during due diligence. Timing is therefore read stage by stage, separating what the seller controls from what they do not.

The three phases of a sale

The first phase is the only one the seller controls almost entirely. It is also the one that does most to shorten the other two.

What speeds a sale up

• Readable accounts. Three comparable financial years, EBITDA adjustments supported document by document, interim figures available.
• A data room ready before the first contact. A buyer’s questions come quickly. Answering in days rather than weeks keeps them engaged.
• A reasoned price. A price explained by the trading performance avoids endless back and forth.
• Qualified buyers. A buyer whose criteria fit, who has shown their financial capacity and whose identity has been checked is more likely to see it through.
• Advisers brought in early. The notary, the lawyer and the accountant know the file before the letter of intent, not after.

What slows it down

Some delays are foreseeable and can be dealt with in advance:

• the landlord’s or franchisor’s consent, and change-of-control clauses in a share sale
• the buyer’s financing, which follows their bank’s timetable
• clearing pre-emption rights and planning checks, when the property is sold
• an unfavourable fire safety inspection, unresolved accessibility issues or uncosted works, which reopen negotiations mid-way through due diligence
• an ongoing dispute, whether employment, commercial or tax
• employee information requirements, where they apply, which must be built into the timetable

Others cost more. A price far from what the trading performance supports wastes months. A hotel already shown widely without success starts again at a disadvantage, as our guide on failed public sale processes explains.

The timetable is also a choice

Selling fast is not always selling well. The timetable takes account of dates specific to the hotel: the close of a financial year that will serve as the reference, the expiry of the lease or of a franchise agreement, the season. Waiting for a good year’s accounts, or avoiding visits to a seasonal hotel at the height of the season, changes how the file is read.

Preparation, on the other hand, is best started before anyone is told. Our guide to preparing the sale of your hotel covers that groundwork.

And between signing and completion?

Between the preliminary contract and completion, the hotel continues to trade under the seller’s responsibility. Conditions precedent are satisfied one by one, within deadlines set in the contract. This period needs managing: each condition has an owner and a deadline, tracked to the last day.

The stages of our mandate, from valuation to completion, are set out on our sale process page.