Charlie Fenton is unique in his role on the RE/MAX Xtra team. He is a specialist in commercial hospitality transactions and has worked as an executive hotel broker with one of Australia’s largest hospitality industry consulting and brokerage organisations.
His experience spans at least 45 years, in which time he’s been associated with hotels and motels across New South Wales, including in Sydney, Leeton, Griffith, Taree, Old Bar and the Southern Highlands.
“I started out in the hotel industry in November 1977 at The Lord Dudley Hotel, Paddington and sold the last hotel I owned in 2017, having owned at least 10,” Charlie said.
“After that, I was general manager of a golf course, had several cracks at politics, then I decided to go into hotel brokering.”
Charlie Fenton is also unique in that he has authored a practical handbook for hoteliers: ‘The Publican’s Mate’ is ‘how to run a hotel 101’.
“I realised I had amassed a vast bank of knowledge and knew the tricks of the trade so could significantly help people in the industry.
“I saw too many coming to hotel ownership without the skills they needed – or had been at it for such a long time that they were overlooking the basics.”
From ‘The Publican’s Mate’:
“I had the Leeton Hotel at Leeton and there was a customer by the name of Charlie Molnar. He lived upstairs and had done so for many years. He said to me that he owned the hotel. I had this argument with him for about 20 minutes, then I realised that he was right. As he said “you will be gone in a few years, but I’ll still be here. So, this is my hotel, you may fix it up, thank you, but it’s my hotel.” Charlie was spot on and in a couple of years I was gone. His lounge room looked lovely. The bar.”
Also, a bit out of the ordinary is the story of how a publican has come to work on a real estate team.
Charlie Fenton and Morris Short, broker owner of RE/MAX Xtra, both went to The Scots College in Sydney, where Charlie boarded, and Morris was a day boy a few year levels below. They knew each other but went separate ways after school. Unbeknown to each other they both ended up in hotels with Morris at the Woombye Hotel on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast from 1988 to 1999. Through a mutual friend, they were back in touch when Morris owned an alcohol wholesale business but then lost touch again when Morris moved into residential real estate.
Last year their paths again crossed, again through the mutual friend and this time the synergies in working together were on the table for discussion
“As a fourth-generation hotelier, I thought that as a hotel broker with RE/MAX Extra, I could offer a lot more than just being an ‘agent of sales’.
Charlie said it was a hot market for sellers if they had a good business operation.
“I am a specialist in knowing the game, in knowing how to fix up a place for a seller. For example, you should always leave something for the next bloke.”
He suggests it can be a good time to buy.
“You can do a lot with a $1mil budget That will get you a hotel in great condition, though forget the pubs with poker machines as you need a minimum of six at $500k plus each. Around $500k will buy you a good country town pub BUT you have to make it work as a business.”
He said country pubs were proving attractive to city buyers.
He said a pub needed to be the centre of the community.
“Take Willow Tree Hotel, for instance. Willow Tree is a small town in rural NSW, halfway between Scone and Tamworth, with a population of just 308. When Sydney businessman Charles Hanna moved to Willow Tree, the town pub was run down. He stepped in to help pay the bills just to keep the doors open, and then he bought it. Willow Tree Inn stayed open through a five-month renovation then officially reopened in November 2011, barely recognisable from its former self. The pub was very successful, it ‘made’ the town, and more businesses opened. Graze restaurant at Willow Tree Inn, is famous. Now it’s often hard to find a parking spot in the town’s main street.”
Charlie acknowledges that running a profitable hotel business is hard work and it frustrates him to see closures because it impacts on communities.
“Look at West Wyong. It used to have nine pubs and maybe there will be three left by the end of this year. That’s very sad.”
Charlie’s vision is establishing a ‘pub school’, where a buyer can be trained into ownership and where, as he says, ‘someone doesn’t have to spend the money until they know what they are getting in to.’
“Having Charlie on the team brings a whole different side to our business,” said Morris. “We understand each other extremely well. I respect his speciality and am happy and privileged to support him as he grows his profile and business.”
Media contact:
Lyn Cox, RE/MAX Australia public relations – M. 0418 793 096
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