Dublin’s Merrion Hotel has delayed plans to build accommodation for staff in a property to the rear of the city centre property, due to the “prohibitive” cost of building, a spokeswoman has confirmed.
The five-star premises in Dublin 2, co-owned by Hastings Hotels, Glen Dimplex founder Martin Naughton and the family of businessman Lochlann Quinn, continued its post-Covid rebound last year with revenue and room occupancy levels exceeding 2022 levels, according to accounts filed recently for operating company Hotel Merrion Ltd.
Speaking to The Irish Times in 2022, general manager Peter MacCann said the company was considering options for accommodating its staff against a backdrop of soaring rents and house prices that has made it increasingly difficult for its employees to live and work in the city centre.
“We’ve looked at whether we should take a house in Bray and buy a bus and run our own shuttle service,” Mr MacCann said at the time. “We’ve looked at houses in west Dublin, we’ve looked at houses in Meath. You ask any hotel and we’re all going into the property business because we need to find places for people to stay so they can come to work.”
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Those plans, however, have been put on hold due to current “prohibitive building costs”, a spokeswoman said.
Turnover at the company behind the hotel jumped 16 per cent to almost €31.2 million from the previous year in the 12 months to the end of October last, well above pre-Covid levels.
The hotel turned an almost €3.6 million profit after tax, down slightly from more than €4.2 million in 2022, largely due a jump in costs and interest payments last year.
Administrative expenses, including wages and salaries, climbed by almost 25 per cent to €10 million, in line with an increase in staff numbers from 355 to 367 in the year. Consequently, wages and salary costs climbed from close to €9.4 million to €12.9 million last year.
A spokeswoman said staff shortages remained a challenge for the sector in 2024 with record low unemployment rates nationally. Overall, business had remained strong in 2024, she said, despite increased cost challenges.
In a report attached to the accounts, the directors said 2023 “built upon the strong regrowth” that began in 2022. “With the return of international leisure business, the year was the strongest to date with our highest occupancy levels of 81 per cent,” they said. The company reported a rebound of occupancy levels to 80 per cent in 2022 after plummeting to zero during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Demand for future bookings into 2024 and beyond continued to be strong,” the directors said.
Meanwhile, the operating company paid back €1.25 million each to Mr Naughton and Mr Quinn – who transferred his 25 per cent stake in the company to his six children in 2020 – for loans advanced. The two businessmen were each owed more than €5.7 million at the end of October last, while the company had loans totalling almost €11.5 million outstanding to Belfast-headquartered Hastings Hotels.
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