A Surrey country house changes hands
Christie & Co announced the sale of the voco-branded Lythe Hill Hotel & Spa on 14 October 2026. The buyer is a Dubai family office represented by Chris Dexter, managing partner international at 7Hospitality. Christie & Co acted for Glen Carter and Damian Webb of RSM UK Restructuring Advisory LLP, the joint administrators.
The hotel has sat in administration since March 2025. Christie & Co marketed the freehold at £8,250,000 from July 2025. The sale price stays undisclosed.
What the buyer gets
Lythe Hill sits on Petworth Road at Haslemere, Surrey, on the Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex borders. Christie & Co puts the grounds at approximately 22 acres.
The hotel trades 60 refurbished rooms and suites, among them four rooms in the Tudor House and four lodges. Function space takes up to 180 guests. A restaurant, bar, leisure club and spa sit on the site, with a gazebo over the lake and a meadow bar for drinks receptions.
Christie & Co records the hotel as the best wedding venue in the South East at The Wedding Industry Awards in 2022.
Three jobs in the buyer's statement
Dexter set out the plan in the sale announcement. "We are delighted to secure a property that provides an opportunity to build a world-class wellness centre and increase the rooms inventory and move the hotel to a 5-star level of service."
That statement carries three workstreams: a wellness facility, added rooms and a service repositioning. None of the three carries a cost, a programme or a start date. Christie & Co published no capital figure. RSM's statement names no works at the property.
Sixty rooms now, ninety-nine on the hotel's history page
The hotel's history page reads: "Currently boasting 60 en suite bedrooms, including several suites, with soon to be 99 bedrooms." That 99 is a plan carried on the hotel's own site. Christie & Co's release lists the 60 rooms.
The gap is 39 rooms. The buyer's statement asks for an increase in inventory and names no number. No planning application for bedrooms appears in the sale material.
The same history page dates the Grade II listed Tudor Farm House to 1475 and places four bedrooms and suites inside it.
£137,500 a key at the asking price
£8,250,000 across 60 rooms works out to £137,500 a room. That is arithmetic on the published asking figure. The sale closed at an undisclosed sum, so the achieved price per key stays unknown.
Ed Bellfield, regional director for hotels at Christie & Co, led the sale process. He said the interest showed "continued confidence in quality regional hotel businesses".
Three questions the sale leaves open
The hotel traded as voco under IHG. No document states whether the franchise continues under the new owner. The buyer is a family office represented by an adviser, and no operator is named. The five-star target carries no timetable and no assessor.
The next document to watch is a planning application for bedrooms.