Model studies have been made of the non-transferred (reactant) and proton-transferred (product) species of the ground-state hydrogen-bonded clusters ROH...(NH 3 ) 5 , where ROH is an aromatic alcohol. The structure, relative energies and vibrational frequencies of this species were obtained at the HF/6-31G * level of theory. It was found that proton transfer can proceed in the case of phenols with the electron-withdrawing substituents. A low-frequency vibration, which corresponds to the synchronous motion of the solvation shell, does exist in these clusters. The energy of the lowest ππ * transition is calculated for aromatic alcohols and their anions at the CASPT2 level with a VDZ basis set.