Hotel articles

Revenues Rise at Muckross Park

Revenues at Muckross Park Hotel have topped €5.4 million in its first year in receivership.

The income at the Co Kerry hotel is more than double the €2.77m in revenues it recorded in 2011, the last period in which the Bill Cullen company that operated the hotel filed accounts.

The documents lodged by the Receiver show payments between September 13 and March 12 totalled €2.79m, including €2m paid in ‘creditor and wage payments’, with €381,495 paid to the Collector General and ‘other costs’ totalling €347,445. Mr Cullen ploughed around €10m of his personal fortune into trying to make a success of the hotel that today employs around 100 people.

Shelbourne Reports Profit

The Shelbourne Hotel Dublin, increased its operating profits by 44% to €4.5m in 2012, according to a report in to-day's 'Irish Examiner'

The figure was revealed in accounts filed with the Companies Office by Shelbourne Hotel Holdings Ltd, with a note stating that the hotel’s key performance indicators continued to improve during 2013.

In January this year, US property investment firm, Kennedy Wilson secured control of the 265 bedroom Shelbourne after acquiring its debt for $152m (€110m).

Pre-Tax Fall at Dublin hotel

Operating profits at the firm that runs the four-star Radisson Blu hotel in Dublin city centre last year increased by 33% to €535,740, but pre-tax profits declined from €402,312 to €115,816.

The Galway-based building firm, the Rhatigan group, owns the 150 bedroom Radisson Blu on Golden Lane in Dublin city centre.

New figures show that the group-owned Luxor Leisure Ltd saw operating profits last year rise from €402,312 to €535,740 in the 12 months to the end of August 31 last.

This followed the firm increasing its gross profit by 7.5% from €8m to €8.6m.

The firm entered a 20-year agreement with the Rezidor group in 2005 to manage the hotel under the Radisson Blu brand.

Book Marks Harvey's Point 25th.

Harvey’s Point Hotel, Donegal is celebrating its 25th Anniversary with the launch of a book called ‘25 Years of Welcomes’.

Launched at a Silver Jubilee Gala in the hotell, the lavishly-illustrated case-bound book tells the s

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tory of how Swiss-born Jody Gysling (pictured with co-owners Marc Gysling and Deirdre McGlone), discovered Harvey’s Point on the shores of Lough Eske in 1983 and built a holiday home there on land he personally reclaimed from a bog. The idyllic holiday cottage grew into a guest house and later into Harvey’s Point Hotel. Jody was joined in the enterprise by his brother Marc who met and married local girl Deirdre McGlone who had come to work at Harvey’s Point as a receptionist.

The hotel grew in scale and stature over the years and is to-day rated ‘No 1 Hotel in Ireland’ by TripAdvisor. It has also won many awards including ‘AA Hotel of the Year’, ‘Ireland’s Best Carvery’ and ‘Ireland’s Best Wedding Venue’.

Written by Frank Corr, the book traces the development of Harvey’s Point from its opening in 1989, through the addition of a ballroom in 1991, Marc’s creation of a unique cuisine based on local produce and the birth of the renowned Harvey’s Point Sunday Carvery Lunch which continues to attract hundreds of diners every week.

O'Brien Re-Opens Ballynahinch

Denis O’Brien has reopened the historic Ballynahinch Castle in Connemara.

The four-star hotel was taken over by Mr O’Brien and his wife, Catherine last year and a major revamp has just been completed.

The legendary Grace O’Malley, or Gráinne Mhaol, married into the Ballynahinch estate through her union with Donal O’Flaherty of the dominant O’Flaherty clan in 1546.

The castle itself was built in the 18th century for the Martin family, where Richard Martin earned the name ‘Humanity Dick’ as a result of founding the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.