A HOTEL owner who built up his own business is to retire, with the property being put up for sale.

The Fairway Hotel, in Hawthwaite Lane, Barrow, is on the market for £2.5m.

The hotel’s owner, Les Bennett, 70, will be retiring as a result of ill health and is hoping a new owner will take it on.

Mr Bennett secured the land in 2000 and since then he has been working to build and expand the hotel’s business.

He said: “Myself and a colleague had been doing homes since the 1980s. When I applied to buy this place, my application had been waiting for over a year before it was eventually accepted.”

The hotel, which is also a licensed wedding venue, now has 42 en-suite bedrooms.

The additions to the hotel in recent years have included a new reception area and entrance hall, lift system, restaurant, wedding venue, conference centre and bar.

The function suite at the hotel has been attracting between 15 and 20 weddings each year since it was constructed, with 10 weddings already booked in for this year.

The future of his staff is important to Mr Bennett. He said: “Anyone buying it off me. I have said that all the staff here should be kept no matter who comes in. Family is family”.

Mr Bennett, a father of five, is stepping down as a result of a neck injury sustained several years ago, which has also forced him to undergo two operations.

He says the greatest sense of achievement he feels comes from seeing his children living their lives well following his success.

He said: “There is a song by Bobby Bennett that says about how a man knows he has made something of himself.

“It goes ‘The best achievement of all is to see your children walking tall’.

“I can retire well, knowing that my children are living their lives and that I have been a good father to them.”