NEWS
Radisson Blu Hotel Belfast Radisson Blu St Helen’s Hotel, Dublin
their doors in the last 12 months. The companies listed on the hotel table who operate in the Republic (18), account for a 34% share of the market with 20,681 rooms between them, spread over their combined 144 hotels. The biggest impact on this year’s Top 20 table is the developments in the Mansfield Group, whose hotels in Citywest, Saggart and Finnstown House, Lucan, Co Dublin were seized by lenders earlier this year. As Jim Mansfield’s company is no longer in control of the hotels and operating them directly, we have deleted the group from the table this year. Receiver Martin Ferris of Ferris & Associates has appointed Dalata Management Services to run both properties and it is this deal which has boosted Dalata’s room numbers substantially from the 2,030 rooms it operated last year. Bewleys Hotel Dublin Airport As well as the 774 bedroom Citywest Hotel & Golf Resort and the 82-room Finnstown House Hotel, Dalata has also been appointed by receivers to manage the Portlaoise Heritage Hotel which contains 110 rooms. The group continues to operate the 98-room Heritage Golf & Spa Resort in Killenard, which was already on its books when lenders took control of the hotel from its owners earlier in the summer. Other hotels operated by Dalata Management Services include the three star Belvedere Hotel in Dublin (92 rooms); the Clayton Hotel, Galway (196); Diamond The Red Cow Moran Hotel, Dublin Coast Hotel, Enniscrone (89); and White’s of Wexford (157). The Maldron Hotel chain, which Pat McCann launched following his 2007 deal with Davy Private Clients to buy the Quality and Comfort Inn leaseholds from Choice Hotels Ireland, gives Dalata 1,381 rooms spread across 10 hotels in Dublin (5), Cork, Galway, Limerick, Portlaoise and Wexford. The Rezidor Hotel Group, the parent company of the Radisson Blu and Park Inn brands, has dropped to second place on this year’s table, maintaining the 2,065 rooms it controls across 13 hotels on the island of Ireland. As well as the Radisson Blu Hotels Rezidor operates in Cavan, Cork (2), Dublin (3), Galway, Letterkenny, Limerick and Sligo (total rooms, 1,659), the group operates the Park Inn, Shannon (114) in the Republic, one of three former Great Southern Hotels the group was appointed to manage in 2007 (the others being Radisson Blu Dublin Airport and Cork Airport). In Northern Ireland, Rezidor operates an additional 265 rooms – Radisson Blu Hotel, Belfast (120) and Park Inn Belfast (145). The Radisson Blu Hotels in Athlone and Limavady are not included in our figures as these are franchised properties. Following The Rezidor Hotel Group is another former number one on our Top 20 Hotels table, Choice Hotels Ireland, the group led by Frankie Whelehan which relinquished the top spot in 2008 when it sold its Quality and Comfort Inns division to Dalata. Choice Hotels Ireland’s numbers have been boosted by this year’s launch of the new Gibson Hotel in Harry Crosbie’s Point Village, Dublin, which, considering its location next to the 02 is aptly named after the Gibson guitar. The hotel’s 252 rooms swell Choice’s room numbers to 1,746. The remaining rooms span over 8
HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ SEPTEMBER 2010 17 hcr august 2010.indd 17
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