The Radisson and Park Inn hotels in Ireland generated profits of €10 million in the 12 months to the end of last November.

Rezidor Hotels, which owns the Radisson and Park Inn brands, is taking over the management of three Great Southern hotels, at Cork, Dublin and Shannon airports.

According to the group's senior vice-president and chief operations officer, Thorsten Kirschke, it has agreed with the owners to invest €4 million in refitting and rebranding the properties.

It is also expanding the Cork hotel by 54 rooms to a total of 125. The refitting and expansion should be completed within a year, he said yesterday.

Mr Kirschke added that there would be "no business interruption" during this time.

The Cork and Dublin hotels will operate under the Radisson banner, while Shannon will be rebranded as a Park Inn hotel. Radisson is the more upmarket brand of the two.

The group's regional director for Ireland, Michel Schutzbach, said yesterday that during the 12 months to November 30th last, the group's Irish operations had revenues of €70 million. "Our profits were close to €10 million," he said.

During the period, the hotels had an average occupancy of 65 per cent, which means that throughout the year, an average of 65 rooms were let out of every 100 rooms. Mr Kirschke said this was enough to guarantee profit.

Rezidor is also due to take over the management of the new Dublin Royal Hotel, a 161-bed property at Dublin Castle, when it is completed.

When the takeover of the three Great Southerns and the Dublin Royal is complete, the group will be managing 15 hotels in the Republic, with a total of 2,006 rooms. The extension of the Cork Airport hotel will bring this to 2,060.

A group of Irish businessmen led by brothers Frank and Ronan McArdle bought the three Great Southern hotels last year.

Mr Kirschke said the three hotels were a good fit with Brussels-based Rezidor's existing businesses. "We believe they are a natural extension of our existing portfolio of Irish properties," he said.

He added that airport hotel management was one of Rezidor's strongest businesses in Europe. "It's a very logical development of our presence in this country," he said.

Mr Schutzbach said its customers were a mix of business people and tourists.

Both Mr Schutzbach and Mr Kirschke said they saw no sign of a slowdown in the Irish market.