Irish hotel group Centre Island has sold its Holiday Inn Express at John Lennon airport in Liverpool to ports and leisure group Peel Holdings for an undisclosed sum. Centre Island is part of the O'Donoghue Ring group, which owns four hotels in Killarney, County Kerry.

Set up in 1995, the group owns the Killarney Plaza Hotel & Spa, Killarney Towers, Killarney Avenue Hotel and River Island Hotel. Its British assets include Crowne Plazas in Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester, and Holiday Inns in Liverpool, Preston and Ellesmere. It also owns 62 Castle Street, a luxury hotel in Liverpool that was originally a bank.

Local reports say Centre Island sold the hotel as part of its strategy to focus on large town-centre and city-centre hotel developments. Centre Island has an annual turnover of more than £47m a year and net assets of more than £50m.

Peel has a presence in Ireland through its ownership of the South Quay container terminal in Dublin. It holds a long-term lease from Dublin Port on 37.26 acres there via subsidiary MTL and has said it wants Dublin Port to be relocated and to redevelop its land for residential and commercial uses.