UNDER THE RADAR SELECT HOTELS OF IRELAND

SETTING UP a new hotels venture when the tourism industry was reeling from the combined effects of foot and mouth disease and the terror attacks in the US in 2001 could be described either as brave or foolhardy.

But Patricia Coughlan says the downturn caused by national and international events seven years ago was the perfect opportunity to launch Select Hotels of Ireland, a new marketing body to represent independently owned three- and four-star hotels in Ireland.

"The market had tightened substantially," says Coughlan. "Hotels had to look at cost effective means of marketing. Select was a very good option for them. Individual hotels saw the necessity of being part of a marketing consortium as opposed to standing alone."

For an annual fee of around €12,000, independently run hotels in Ireland can join the consortium which carries out national and international marketing on their behalf. "If they undertook to do the same marketing activity themselves it would cost them 30 or 40 times that amount, which is not feasible," says Coughlan.

"They get into a directory which has a print circulation of 100,000 and is circulated to travel agents, to corporate business houses and to leisure travellers both home and abroad."

On top of that, each hotel has a page on the Select's website and is represented by Coughlan and her team at trade fairs and consumer shows around the world.

However, Coughlan says that strict guidelines dictate a hotel's eligibility to join the group: "Is it an independent, progressive property? Are they reinvesting in their property? Is it in an area where we need a hotel and do the owners manage to the standard of a superior three- or four-star product?

"Last year, we had to remove two hotels from the group because they didn't maintain standards and, if we had left them in, our business would have suffered," explains Coughlan.

While the Select concept may have helped the independent hotel sector withstand the economic downturn in the aftermath of 9/1l, in recent years it has allowed the independents to hold their own against the influx of international hotel brands and chains, according to Coughlan.

She agrees that there may now be an over-supply of hotels in the Irish market due to the arrival of international brands and tax incentives to build new hotels. However, she argues that the casualties in any downturn will be the international brands that have set up in smaller population centres.

"There is more loyalty to smaller Irish-owned independent hotels," she argues. "The small independently owned hotel does better from the leisure traveller because they are coming to Ireland to seek an Irish experience, not an international brand. The international brands work well in urban areas for corporate customers. The leisure traveller doesn't want that."

International brands also conjure up images of standardisation and monotony, she says.

Just over a year ago, Coughlan set up a separate business, privateireland.com, when she was approached by a number of owners of town and country houses and small boutique hotels who were interested in the Select concept. "They saw the necessity for a similar type of marketing platform for the smaller, more property but using the same concept," she says.

Coughlan hit upon the idea for her businesses when she was working for Chatham Bars Inn near Boston in the late 1990s.

"That was a good example of an independent hotel which was part of Leading Hotels of the World marketing consortium. I thought we could replicate this in Ireland for the small, independently owned hotel."

But it wasn't always easy, particularly raising finance. Banks were not very helpful at the time as they saw the "hotel super-brands" as the answer to the marketing needs of an individual hotel - not an independent marketing group, she says.

"I even had difficulty trying to secure a €12,000 overdraft even though they were getting security," she says.

But with her own funds, a bit of help from her parents and just herself as sole employee, she persevered with the idea. Today the marketing company employs four people, has turnover of around €500,000 and generates millions in reservations for its clients. "It's working very well," says Coughlan. "We've come from seeing in our very first year a scary €60,000 worth of bookings to generating over €5million which shows our brand has a very good value."

ON THE RECORD

Name:Patricia Coughlan.

Age:33.

From:Clarina, Co Limerick.

Background:Coughlan is a graduate of the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology where she completed a degree in hotel and catering management in 1996. Her career has taken her from Enniscree Lodge, Enniskerry, to the US and on to Tinakilly House in Wicklow.

She also spent time managing Smyth's Country Lodge in east Clare.

She is founder and managing director of Select Hotels of Ireland. A former chairwoman of the Young Irish Hospitality Institute, Coughlan is a current council member of the Irish chapter of the Hotels Sales and Marketing Institute. She is the current chairwoman of this year's industry awards as well as a director and shareholder in Private Ireland.

Inspired by:Sir Rocco Forte.

Most likes:food, wine, travel and walking.

Favourite book:currently reading Five Star Service, One Star Budget by Michael Heppell.