Heritage Dunedin Leisure Lodge Sold to Distinction Hotel Group

Main Photo: The Heritage Dunedin Leisure Lodge

Date: June 2021

Location: Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand

Name: The Dunedin Leisure Lodge

No. of Keys: 77

Seller: Skyline Enterprises Ltd, who have held the hotel for more than 35 years.

Buyer: The 77-room hotel in Duke St is Dunedin’s only garden hotel and offers a range of rooms, as well as event spaces. It had been part of Skyline Enterprises Ltd’s portfolio for “35 to 40 years”, Skyline chief executive Geoff McDonald said.

“It has a lot of heritage with the company … We got an unsolicited offer a couple of weeks ago for it. “It wasn’t actively on the market, but the board thought it was too good of opportunity to turn up,” he said. There had been a bit of interest in it over the years, he said.

The sale would allow Skyline to focus on its core business with the gondola and luge parks in Queenstown and Rotorua, he said.

The Distinction Hotel Group has 16 hotel complexes across New Zealand, including the Distinction Dunedin Hotel in Liverpool St in Dunedin, under three brands, Heritage, CityLife and Heritage Collection.

Mr McDonald estimated Heritage Dunedin Leisure Lodge accounted for almost 10% of the company’s overall revenue. “It has always been a very solid little performer, perhaps increasingly with the importance of the university student populations and parents coming to stay, so it has always had very good patronage.

“It also did very well with Forsyth Barr Stadium being an easy walk, plus a range of different corporate travellers,” he said. The hotel’s business had recovered well following the Covid-19 lockdown, Mr McDonald said.

“Dunedin has done OK because it is perhaps less exposed to the tourism sector … and it was helped by the really strong university sector nearby.” Mr McDonald would not comment on the price of the sale, due to a confidentiality agreement.

Price: Undisclosed

THPT Comment: A good purchase for Distinction who are growing nicely and must be one of New Zealand’s larger hotel groups now.

First Seen: Otago Daily Times

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