Pandemic pushes Glenburn hotel into administration

Administrators have been appointed to the Glenburn hotel in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute after the impact of the pandemic led to unsustainable cash flow problems for the business.

Stuart Robb and Chad Griffin, partners at FRP Advisory, have been appointed joint administrators of the property, which was built in 1843 as Scotland’s first ‘hydropathic’ hotel. It opened as a classic grand seaside hotel in 1892, aimed at an affluent client base.

The hotel was extensively refurbished in 2016 and has around 121 bedrooms, a ballroom, restaurants, bars, terrace, conference facilities and extensive terraced gardens. The property was sold to an unnamed Malaysian investor off a guide price of £1.8m in 2016.

The property had traded briefly since the start of the first lockdown in early 2020 and had been closed since November 2020 with staff initially being placed on furlough.

The administrators will begin the process of marketing the hotel for sale and are urging any interested parties to contact FRP Advisory as soon as possible.

All remaining staff will be made redundant with immediate effect and the joint administrators will now commence liaising with employees, the Redundancy Payments Office and other agencies to minimise the impact on staff and ensure their claims for redundancy and other entitlements are processed as quickly as possible.

Robb said: “The Glenburn hotel is a landmark hotel with a long history stretching back to its opening as a grand seaside hotel in 1892. Unfortunately, having explored all its options, the hotel was unable to survive the significant fall in revenue caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, while still having to meet significant maintenance and running costs.

“We will now focus our efforts on assisting employees, many of whom have worked at the hotel for many years, to submit their claims for redundancy and other sums due to them whilst preparing to market and sell the hotel. While this is a sad day in the hotel’s history, this is an outstanding opportunity to acquire an iconic hotel on one of Scotland’s most accessible islands, and we would encourage any interested parties to contact Kris Tosh at Kris.tosh@frpadvisory.com.”