- Current pipeline of over 2,200 new rooms:
Four new hotels – 727 rooms – to open during 2018 - One hotel in Belfast, two in Dublin and one in Cork creating 500 new jobs on the island of Ireland.
- Maldron Hotel Newcastle (264 rooms) scheduled to open in early 2019
- Extensions at hotels in Dublin and Galway on schedule to deliver an additional 253 rooms during 2018
- Group received full planning permission at Dublin’s Tara Towers Hotel to
develop a new 140 bedroom hotel branded Maldron Hotel Merrion Road and 69 residential units. Construction is expected to commence in 2018 - €129m spent on hotel acquisitions in Ireland and Britain
Ireland’s largest hotel group, Dalata, says trading is marginally ahead of expectations for the first quarter of 2018 as it aims to deliver 1,200 more rooms this year. Revenue per available room (RevPAR) is up 9.2pc in Dublin, higher than the average for all hotel chains, at 7.7pc. Excluding the chain’s Clayton Hotel Burlington Road, RevPAR is up even more – 11pc.
Pat McCann, Dalata Group CEO, said: “Hotels in Regional Ireland also performed well, achieving RevPAR growth of 9.1pc.” He said that its British portfolio is doing well, with RevPar growth of 11.9pc, against the overall average of just 4.4pc.
Dalata RevPAR first quarter of 2018
space of time,” he said.
But he warned of risks, including political events, while “a significant reduction in the value of sterling would also make Ireland a more expensive destination”, and hit the inbound British market. He added though that “85pc of our rooms in Dublin are sold to either domestic consumers or visitors from countries other than Britain”. Only 6pc of regional Irish rooms are sold to British customers, and the slowdown from Britain “is currently being more than offset by the growth in visitors from other markets such as North America and Europe”.
While Dublin is booming, he said “any downturn in the Dublin market is likely to have a material impact on the Group’s performance. There is also risk associated with increase in supply of rooms in the Dublin market in the future. However, demand for hotel rooms in Dublin continues to grow and the Group believes the market can support increases in supply.”
He also warned that “as Dalata expands there is a risk that the organisation’s unique culture and values could be damaged or it fails to retain key expertise and develop talent within the Group. The rollout of the Dalata business model is dependent on the availability of key people to manage the hotels and the retention of its strong culture.
“The Group is actively managing these risks through the development of the “Dalata Way” values programme and a sustainable development strategy, together with strong communication and training to all employees. The rollout of Dalata
Online, an e-learning platform will also continue in 2018.”
Analysing the Dalata results, Davy Stockbrokers believes that “our 2018 RevPAR growth assumptions by region are: Dublin 5.5pc, Regional Ireland 5pc and Britain and Northern Ireland up 3.5pc”.
