The Gunne agency got a particularly strong price at auction for the Belgrave Guesthouse, at Belgrave Square, Rathmines, Dublin 6, when it sold last Friday for £1.8 million. The three interconnecting Victorian houses have 24 en suite bedrooms and excellent reception rooms. There is an enclosed car-parking area at the front of the houses. The business had a turnover last year of around £250,000.

Elsewhere, one of Co Cork's best known bed and breakfast businesses, the Lighthouse, in Kinsale, is expected to make around £400,000 when it is sold shortly through Hamilton Osborne King. The house has seven en suite bedrooms.