Hotelier Joanna Kidston said she enjoyed her more than five years running ''the pub'', saying the hotel had a loyal local clientele.
Having come into the hospitality industry from a background in early childhood teaching, she joked she at least had ''some experience in crowd control''.
Aside from ''the very supportive locals'', the waterfront hotel attracted an overall ''varied clientele'' with many Dunedin people stopping in while taking friends on tours of wider Dunedin. It was a popular attraction for cruise ship visitors and also appealed to independent travellers as a destination, she said.
Ms Kidston and her husband, originally a Port Chalmers fisherman, intended to stay in the township. She had been formulating some business ideas with a friend, but would first ''take a break'' and looked forward to more time at home.
The property and business, which includes the main bar, conservatory restaurant and three restored accommodation rooms upstairs, goes on sale with Ray White Real Estate on Monday.
Auckland-based former owner of the National Business Review, publisher Barry Colman, and his late wife, Cushla Martini, bought the 1874 hotel in 2001 and extensively renovated the bluestone building, at a cost of about $1.6 million. Ms Martini (55) died of breast cancer in September 2005.
In March 2008, Mr Colman sold the hotel, for an unconfirmed more than $1.2 million, for a time leaving his collection of Ralph Hotere works at the hotel, including the artwork Vive Aramoana that had sold for $230,000.
Ms Martini's other Port Chalmers projects, the Tall Poppy restaurant and two 1890s townhouses, have been sold in recent years.
