Jury's Inn, the Irish family-owned hotel chain, has confirmed that the business is formally up for sale with an auction due to begin this week. 

Information regarding the sale is reportedly to be sent to around 50 private equity houses and trade buyers, with the sale process estimated to take around three months. 

The 20-strong chain, which has three new hotels due to be opened over the next 12 months and several more in the pipeline, could fetch up to €1bn. 

Jurys Inn is part of the Jurys Doyle hotel group, which was taken private in a €1.3bn deal fourteen months ago. Jurys Doyle will use the proceeds of the sale to reduce its estimated €870m of debts and to develop its remaining portfolio of high-end Jurys Doyle hotels. 

The auction will be handled by Irish private equity company Crownway Investments in conjunction with advisers Merril Lynch. Crownway is run by the husband of Jurys Doyle founder PV Doyle's daughter, Bernadette.