Australia's highest hotel and the first in Perisher Valley is back up for sale after a buyer fell through.
The Sundeck Hotel, which has been operating in the Valley since 1959, has been listed on the market for a cool $7.5 million.
Co-owner Cliff Wallis said the Sundeck was an "iconic place" in the mountains.
"It's the first hotel in Perisher, so it's fairly well-known, and there's a lot of loyal customers, people who have been staying here for a long time, people who have been drinking in the bar after skiing for a long time," he said.
"I've got a lot of guests pleading for us to keep going which is nice. We've got very loyal clientele."
Mr Wallis has owned and run the hotel for more than 30 years. He said they were ideally looking for an owner-operator who can run it and look after the guests as well as they have.
First sale unsuccessful
The hotel was put up for sale in September 2022, with the owners saying they were ready to "take a step back".
Real estate agent Michelle Stynes said they had a buyer ready to go, but the sale fell through at the last minute.
"We actually thought we had a buyer all tied up to the point where we had agreements and everything, and then his finance fell over," she said.
"[These types of hotels] are extremely difficult to finance because it's leasehold. The banks obviously don't like it because it's not freehold."
All property in Perisher and Thredbo is on a leasehold system, where owners lease the land for decades at a time. The Sundeck has a leasehold agreement until 2057.
There's already been a lot of interest in the hotel, Ms Stynes said, with 20 inquiries in the first day the ad was listed.
Busy season ahead
Mr Wallis said said the hotel was still turning over a profit and they were already booked out for most of the season.
"Our bookings are pretty reasonable this winter despite there being a bit of a slowdown in the industry," he said.
"We've been reasonably busy the last three weeks and we're pretty well booked until the eighth of September."
Many tourist operators have raised concerns this season about the snowfall, particularly after a dismal winter in 2023.
A local snowsport shop and tour business told The Canberra Times they'd seen a significant drop in business compared to previous years.
However, Mr Wallis said while it was something always on his mind, variability was part of the business.
"You're at the mercy of the weather, as most tourist businesses are," he said.
"We've got a place on the coast, too, if we have wet weather down there, non-beach weather, then that obviously affects things down there, too.
"Adverse weather affects not only snow businesses, it affects all tourist businesses."
