About
Experience: Established in 2012 as a specialist agency & consultancy, NJB Hotels & Leisure Property is the creation of Nick Barber, who brings his 30 years of high level industry experience to clients seeking a personalised hotel portfolio service that is both proactive and reactive. Nick has been a managing director and partner in some of the biggest names in national and London commercial property consultancy, as well as specialist hotel sector advisors. He is a chartered surveyor and RICS registered valuer, with an in-depth knowledge of corporate hotels across the UK.
Expertise: Nick has expertise in key areas for the serious property investor seeking long, medium or short term profit in the hotels sector.
Nick advises on:
- Acquisitions and sales of trading businesses and investments
- Leases, franchises and management contracts
- Operators and brands
- Project development
- Estate management
- Hotel viability
He has worked across the complete UK hotel property life cycle, from development, through operation and tenure, to exit for alternative use, and has a comprehensive understanding of hotel brands, locations and demographics throughout the country. Research and consultancy assignments are a key element of the NJBHLP business.
Excellence: With an extensive, results driven agency track record, Nick’s major projects have included:
- The £100m-plus sale of the landmark 10 Trinity Square, London EC3 (former headquarters of the Port of London Authority and venue for the UN’s first ever General Assembly) for luxury hotel conversion, now the Four Seasons Hotel London Ten Trinity Square.
- Two sales of Dartmoor’s iconic five star Bovey Castle, both to and for entrepreneur and creator Peter de Savary: the exit price at £26.4 million.
- A marketing strategy for the 111 bedroom, £8 million Hotel Bristol Sheffield designed to attract both business buyers and those seeking to create a branded hotel investment. The successful investor agreed a concurrent management contract with Rezidor to create The Park Inn, Sheffield.
- Acting ‘off-market’ for four-star UK group Marston Hotels in repositioning its estate prior to sale by placing identified ‘non- core’ hotels (in Bath, Chester and Croydon) in a single £20 million deal.
- The Principal Hotels’ led disposals for Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts, which included The Queens at Leeds, The Queen at Chester and Blackpool’s largest hotel, The Norbreck Castle.
NJBHLP concentrates on UK corporate hotels and hostels, with a ‘sweet spot’ in the limited service sector. With the regional acquisitions brief for cities expansion for YHA (England & Wales), Nick worked on the new acquisitions of YHAs Brighton (2014), Cardiff (2015) and Newcastle Central (2019); he is an acquisitions advisor to Travelodge in the further expansion of its nationwide leasehold estate; from 2021 he has added UK franchise development for Choice Hotels EMEA, starting with the launch of refreshed ‘Comfort’ and ‘Clarion’ brands. Nick is also a regular advisor on acquisitions and hotels estates matters to leading pension fund managers (examples KF-IM, DTZ Investors, Legal & General IM, BP IM), real estate investors (Cordatus, David Samuel AM, Frasers Group, Martin’s Properties) and specialist developers (Jaynic, Seven Capital).