Bermuda-based Orient-Express Hotels Ltd., owners or part-owners and managers of 49 luxury hotel, restaurant, tourist train and river cruise properties operating in 25 countries, has announced the acquisition of a fifth property in Peru - a hotel in the Sacred Valley of the Incas.

The 21-suite property, which opened in April 2009, has been acquired from Industrias Turistica Vagamundos SAC by Orient-Express Hotels' joint venture company, Peru OEH SA (POEH) for $7 million, funded from the POEH cash reserves plus long term debt of $2.5 million.

Hotel Rio Sagrado, a rustic two-storey property overlooking the Urubamba river, is three kilometres from the town of Urubamba and 15 minutes from Ollantaytambo, home to an important Inca village and fortress as well as the main PeruRail station stop en route to Machu Picchu.

The hotel has 11 deluxe and 10 junior suites plus two 250-square metre (sq m) villas. Its 230 sq m spa has a large treatment room with indoor and outdoor Jacuzzis and a sauna.

Paul White, president and chief executive of Orient-Express Hotels, said: "Expanding the Orient-Express Peruvian experience to the Sacred Valley is a natural as well as a strategic move and enables the company to provide its guests with a luxury itinerary from arrival through to departure. The key sights in this part of Peru are the city of Cuzco, the Inca sanctuary at Machu Picchu and towns, antiquities and markets of the Sacred Valley - arguably one of the most beautiful and scenic places in this wonderful country."

Orient-Express also owns the Miraflores Park in Lima, as well as the gateway to Cuzco, where it has Hotel Monasterio (next door, the Company has just commenced the conversion of a historic convent into a 56-key hotel, Palacio Nazarenas, due for completion in 2011); Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge adjacent to the Inca Sanctuary; and Las Casitas del Colca in the Colca Canyon.

The company also runs the luxury Hiram Bingham train between Cuzco and Machu Picchu.