Owner puts Stracta hotels up for sale

Hreiðar Hermannsson, owner of Stracta hotels in Hella, Stracta Hotel and Hotel Mosfells, has decided to sell the company together with three restaurants and an industrial laundry connected to the operation, mbl.is reports.

“People are telling me that I will not live forever,” Hreiðar said with a laugh.

He plans to spend more time with his family and pursue other interests. The hotels have played a key role in developing tourism in Hella, creating about 50 year round jobs and supporting a broader range of services and economic activity in the area.

“This is a major decision for me, as the hotels have occupied my thoughts completely for more than a decade,” Hreiðar said. He had originally planned to advertise the hotels for sale last year, but the process was delayed for various reasons.

Alongside the hotel business, Hreiðar has operated his own construction company, Byggingarfélagið Sandfell. The company has worked for the silicon plant in Húsavík as well as on numerous other projects.

Hreiðar is a trained master carpenter and began working as a contractor in Vestmannaeyjar in 1973, the year of the volcanic eruption. He said he first explored hotel operations in Selfoss in 1986, when relatively few foreign tourists visited Iceland.

“I was building a sports centre at Laugarvatn at the time. I got permission to build a hotel and took the first shovel. When I looked at hotel occupancy figures in the surrounding area, I realised there was no sense in it and ended up filling the hole back in,” he said.

Two years later, he built Gesthús in Selfoss with three others. The property consisted of small accommodation units for tourists and gave him his first experience of running a hotel.

Expansion plans remain in place

Hreiðar said he sees a certain romance in operating hotels. He believes the hotel in Hella is well positioned because it is within convenient distance of the capital area, allowing guests to attend meetings and conferences.

He said the location would improve further with a new bridge over the Ölfusá river. The bridge would make Hella the first stop on the national road after Hveragerði.

He also said a planned bridge over the Þjórsá river, which will connect to Landvegur in Holta and Landsveit, would further strengthen the hotel business in Hella and tourism in southern Iceland.

Guests could stay at the hotel and take day trips to attractions including Laugarás Lagoon in Laugarás, Þórsmörk, Landmannalaugar, Seljalandsfoss, Skógafoss and Svörtufjara by Mýrdalur, he said.

Plans have already been approved to expand Stracta Hotel with four new three storey buildings. Each would contain 84 rooms, adding up to 336 rooms in total. Connecting corridors have been built from the existing hotel building so the new buildings can be linked to the hotel in stages.

The new buildings would have rooms with balconies on the upper floors and private gardens on the lower floors. The existing main building is also set to be expanded by 1,300 square metres with an additional floor.