The Fowey Hotel has been put up for sale for a guide price of £5.5m after its owners went into administration.

It’s one of four leading hotels in major West Country locations placed on the market following the administration of Richardson Hotels Limited and Fowey Hotel Limited, part of the Richardson Group hotel chain.

Sector specialist Colliers International has been instructed by joint administrators Mark Boughey and Matthew Wild of RSM Restructuring Advisory LLP to sell the Metropole Hotel in Padstow; the Falmouth Hotel, Falmouth; the Fowey Hotel and the Grand Hotel, Torquay.

All hotels continue to trade on a business as usual basis.

Ed Jefferson from the South West Hotels team at Colliers International said: ‘All have great features that will appeal to a wide range of buyers.

‘Interested parties are invited to make an offer either individually, in clusters or as a group.

‘Our clients will decide what offer or combination of offers to accept in order to satisfy the needs of the administration.’

The Fowey Hotel is a four-star boutique hotel with 37 en suite letting rooms, of which 24 have sea views, bar and restaurant. Around 40 people work there.

 Ed Jefferson said: ‘The Fowey Hotel has been used as the flagship of the group for some time.

‘This hotel is of a size that will attract both independent hoteliers and operators of small chains seeking a trophy asset.

‘The hotel also has very desirable water frontage.’

The Fowey Hotel was purpose-built in 1882 as the railways expanded in Cornwall. It has links to Daphne Du Maurier and Wind in the Willows author, Kenneth Grahame, some of whose letters to his son Alistair are displayed in the hotel.

Used as a convalescent home during World War One, and as a base for US Naval officers in World War Two, the hotel was bought by Keith Richardson in 1996.