CHY an drea purchase for shearings

Shearings Holidays, Rank Group's coach holiday business, has paid £350,000 for the 33-bedroom Chy an Drea Hotel in St Ives, Cornwall.

The buy is the fourth by Shearings' hotel division, Coast & Country Hotels, in the past six months and brings its total number of properties to 34.

"Chy an Drea is in an ideal situation for us and underlies our commitment to seaside resorts," said Shearings' operations director Vince Flower.

The group planned to grow to between 40 and 45 properties over the next three years, buying properties of 70 to 75 bedrooms, he added.

The hotel is next to Shearings' 50-bedroom St Ives Bay Hotel and the two will be joined to create an 82-bedroom property in a £250,000 refurbishment.

l Rank's Warner Holidays subsidiary is spending £9m adding 190 bedrooms to Littlecote House near Marlborough, Wiltshire, which it bought earlier this year.