The MacDonald Arms Hotel, Tobermory

A fully refurbished, turnkey island hotel on the harbour front of Tobermory, the west coast's most recognisable waterfront. Eleven en-suite letting bedrooms over two floors, a bar of around 25 covers with a serious whisky gantry, and 75 West, a 40-cover restaurant looking straight over the bay, behind it a newly fitted commercial kitchen. The first floor also carries a self-contained three-bedroom staff wing, equally suited to owners living on site.

The trade is real and the headroom is honest: room rates run £110 to £300+ a night by season, peak summer averages beyond £200, and the restaurant currently trades evenings only, which leaves daytime covers on the table for the next owner. We have run this business ourselves through Highland seasons; the numbers a buyer will be shown are numbers we have lived.

The price is £1,450,000. It reflects a finished, refurbished, trading asset with nothing left to spend, and it is the price: we know what it is worth and we are not in a hurry.

Full particulars, accounts for serious enquiries, further photos and viewings are all arranged directly: hello@9rok.com or 0333 050 0953. You will be talking to the owners, which tends to make the answers quicker.

How a purchase like this funds

Illustrative, using the assumptions published across this site, and exactly the arithmetic in our guide to buying a hotel in Scotland:

  • Deposit: at 30 to 35%, roughly £435,000 to £510,000
  • LBTT: trading hotels take non-residential rates, about £61,000 at the asking price, and on the standard analysis no Additional Dwelling Supplement applies; your solicitor or accountant should confirm the treatment for your purchase, staff wing included. Check the bands on the LBTT calculator
  • Borrowing: a 65% loan of about £942,500 costs in the region of £7,000 a month over 20 years at 6.5%, stress-tested around £8,200 at two points higher; run your own figures on the commercial mortgage calculator
  • On top: working capital for the season, valuation, legals and lender arrangement fees

Not an offer of finance, and lenders will make their own assessment of the trade; it is the honest shape of the deal.

Buying a hotel, this one or another?

Send the particulars, the price and the accounts you've seen. One working day to an honest view from people who have owned the trade.