FOR the past 15 years Bob and Olya Smith have been running the Bridge House Hotel in Bridport but have now decided it's time to slow down.

They are putting the fully refurbished 10-bedroom Georgian Grade II Listed hotel on the market for a guide price of £900,000.

Dating from 1768, the Bridge House Hotel was originally an academy for training Independent Ministers, a gentlemen’s residence and, in 1900, a school for 'upright' young gentlemen.

The Smiths bought the then one-star hotel in 2002 and set about restoring it to its former glory.

Mr Smith said: "The hotel is on the market because I am looking to retire.

"We have a great time and have built a terrific place here. When I came it was severely run down and was basically a very low-key guest house.

"Since then we have built it up to three stars plus.

"It is very much a full-time job, a small hotel like ours but it has been a labour of love we have enjoyed restoring the place.

"We have put a lot of time and effort and funds into it and it has been restored to its former glory."

"It has been great fun. It was in dire need of some investment and tender loving care."

"We are totally different to most hotels, we don;t have customers we have guests. We socialise with our guests and that's why they keep coming back. We are the businessman's hotel of town, that's why they keep coming back.

"It wasn't onerous I found it delightful.

When Mr Smith came with his wife Olya he hadn't run a hotel before - but had stayed in plenty.

He was an international project manager in the food and agriculture industry and worked closely with the European Commission and World Bank, running projects exclusively in the Soviet Union helping it put its food industry back together after perestroika.

He added: "I used to travel in eastern Europe and travel out of a suitcase and I spent a lot of time in hotels so I knew what I wanted out of one."

The business has a net turnover in excess of £200,000, say the marketing agents leisure property specialist Fleurets , with 80 per cent coming from accommodation sales.

The hotel has an asking price in excess of £900,000.