Drunk couple wake up $87k in debt after buying hotel during drinking binge

Gina Lyons and Mark Lee drank a lot of rum and woke up to learn they'd bought a hotel. Photo / Facebook

A British couple woke up with a whopping hangover and tens of thousands of dollars in debt after they realised they'd bought the hotel they were staying in.

Gina Lyons, 33, and Mark Lee, 35, were backpacking around Sri Lanka for their honeymoon last year when they were told by the owners of the beachside hotel that the lease was almost up.

After more than a dozen glasses of Sri Lankan rum on their first night, the couple decided it'd be a great idea to take up the lease — a decision that cost them around NZ$87,000.

The hotel in Sri Lanka. The couple say they like the "treehouse feel" and the fact it's on the beach. Photo / Facebook

"The hotel looked grotty and very cheap, but it was by the beach and had the 'wooden treehouse' feel that we like," Ms Lyons told the Mirror.

"When we were on the beach drinking rum, we were told that the lease was almost up for the hotel.

"After finding out that it was £10,000 ($NZ20,000) a year, myself and Mark thought that it would be a brilliant idea to buy it — because we were so drunk."

Even the next day, when the couple were signing the official paperwork, they admitted they were still tipsy.

"We had to take two friends we had made with us so they could translate for us, as the couple didn't speak English themselves," Ms Lyons said.

"Because we didn't understand most of the conversation, Mark and I were just sat drinking more rum and slowly getting drunk again."

Three months after forking out the first part of the lease, the couple found out they were expecting their first child.

"I felt like I was already a bad mother because I felt guilty that I'd wasted all of this money buying a business that might not work," Ms Lyons said.

"Even our friends and family think we're idiots and shouldn't have been doing it — we owed a lot of money from the wedding and only lived in a tiny flat, and now we had a baby on the way."

Since becoming owners of the hotel in July, the couple says business has been good.