Orient-Express Acquires Hotel in Peru’s Sacred Valley

Orient-Express Hotels Ltd., owners or part-owners and managers of 49 luxury hotels, restaurants, tourist trains and river cruise properties operating in 25 countries, has acquired a fifth property in Peru, an existing hotel in the Sacred Valley of the Incas.

The 21-suite property, which opened in April 2009, has been purchased from Industrias Turistica Vagamundos SAC by Orient-Express Hotels’ joint venture company, Peru OEH SA (POEH) for $7 million, funded from the POEH cash reserves plus long-term debt of $2.5 million.

Hotel Rio Sagrado is described as a rustic, two story property set in beautiful gardens overlooking the Urubamba river with an imposing mountain backdrop. It is three kilometers from the town of Urubamba and 15 minutes from Ollantaytambo, home to an important Inca village and fortress as well as the main PeruRail station stop en route to Machu Picchu.

The hotel has 11 deluxe and 10 junior suites plus two 250-square-meter villas constructed from natural stone and woods such as eucalyptus and cedar, with marble and onyx bathrooms and flagstone terraces. The property’s 230-square-meter spa has a large treatment room with views of the Urubamba, indoor and outdoor Jacuzzis and a sauna.

With the acquisition of the new hotel, Orient-Express now has five properties in Peru. The others are the Miraflores Park in Lima, the gateway to Cuzco, where Orient-Express has Hotel Monasterio. Next door the company has just begun converting a historic convent into a 56-room hotel, Palacio Nazarenas, due for completion in 2011.

Other hotels include the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge adjacent to the Inca Sanctuary; and Las Casitas del Colca in the Colca Canyon. The Company also runs the luxury Hiram Bingham train between Cuzco and Machu Picchu.