Aberdeen hotel popular with Shetlanders sold to Brudolff group
The Brentwood Hotel in Aberdeen, a long-time favourite with isles people visiting the city, is being sold to the owners of the Shetland, Lerwick and Kveldsro hotels.
The Brudolff Hotels Group, which also owns the Craighaar Hotel in Aberdeen, is purchasing the 66-bedroom Brentwood from Luigi Stucchi, who has owned it for the past 35 years.
Earlier this year general manager Jim Byers retired and with Mr Stucchi now based in Monaco he felt that now was the right time to sell the business. The Brudolff group is headed by Shetland-born solicitor Robert Smith.
Ken Sims of Christie + Co, which brokered the sale, said: “The Brentwood Hotel is a first-class business which had been recently refurbished. It is located in a prime location in the city and it offers Robert Smith an excellent opportunity to consolidate the business in Aberdeen with 53 bedrooms near the airport with the Craighaar, and 66 in the city centre with The Brentwood. It is an excellent fit for both Aberdeen and Shetland.”
The sale is expected to be completed on 1st November when the business transfers across to Brudolff Hotels.
Marjory Barrie, the regional manager in Shetland for Brudolff, and a director of the company, said: “We want to be able to offer our customers a decent choice of locations and styles either in Aberdeen, or here in Lerwick.
“Our policy here in Lerwick is to consolidate and improve; we have invested over £750,000 in the past three years in new bathrooms for all the bedrooms at the Shetland Hotel and the Lerwick Hotel, and have contracted for new state of the art bathrooms for the Kveldsro House Hotel to be installed next January.
“We have also teamed up with a Glasgow-based design company who are redesigning the entrance and foyer to the Lerwick Hotel, [and the] same at the Shetland Hotel, and a new eaterie at the Shetland Hotel, all of which we hope to be able to do in 2011.
“The opportunity for us as a company to acquire a newly-renovated, modern, 66-bedroomed hotel in Aberdeen city centre, as a perfect fit for our 55 bedrooms at the Craighaar Hotel near the airport, was too good a chance to miss.”
mrs.C. Donald
The Brentwood was always very reasonable, comfortable and central in Aberdeen. Change of ownership and improvements can sometimes mean higher charges which is an added concern for island travellers.
Chrstine Donald
Sandwick
M. Flockhart
Having spent a weekend at the Brentwood Hotel while visiting a friend from Shetland who was in hospital I cannot say I am enthralled to know that the Brudolff Group have purchased this hotel. The Brentwood is run extremely efficiently, is very well equipped, staff highly trained, meals excellent and the whole package executed at a very reasonable price. I compare this with the Lerwick , Shetland and the Kveldrso Hotels where in my experience nothing works well on a consistent basis, prices are exorbitant for both rooms and meals and the majority of the staff are either completely demoralised by trying to put a brave face on the situation or berefit of good quality training. The Lerwick Hotel lounge and restaurant decor is from an era long gone, is extremely depressing and does nothing whatsoever to inspire either staff or customers. I do hope the input from owners and managers of the Brudolff Group does not lead to the Brentwood Hotel suffering the same fate as the hotels they own in Shetland.
Margaret Flockhart