Hotels heavily dependent on international business are slower to recover

The news that one of the biggest and newest hotels in Dublin, the 421-bedroom Holiday Inn at Dublin Airport, has shut after just seven months and is being lined up as an asylum centre suggests uncertainty still reigns over some of the city's tourism sector, despite the easing of pandemic restrictions.

Some mothballed stock is coming back to the market. Citywest, Dublin's largest hotel, reopened its doors to guests this month, after a two-year hiatus during which the Health Service Executive has been its main client – the State has run testing and vaccination from Citywest Convention Centre and the hotel was used as an isolation and rest centre for exhausted HSE staff at the height of the pandemic.

But Tetrarch, Citywest’s owner, recently abandoned plans to develop another hotel on Dawson Street in Dublin due to uncertainty over the city’s long-term tourism recovery.

The Holiday Inn property was a major new addition to the accommodation stock around the airport when it opened in July. Its owner, the JMK group, is said to be preparing to enter an exclusive arrangement with the State to house asylum seekers, which would be likely to guarantee it a stable income for 12 months.

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Some global branded hotels are heavily reliant on their membership of international booking engines to source much of their custom, especially if they are in locations with low footfall that are not popular with local visitors. The booking platform of Holiday Inn brand owner IHG Hotels is especially important for driving international business to its franchisees.

JMK’s large Holiday Inn property is tucked away behind Dardistown Cemetery, across the motorway from the airport. It would not have a huge passing trade of locals and its location will have made it difficult for it to easily pivot to the staycation market after it opened just last July.

Thousands of new hotel rooms are in the planning pipeline for Dublin, yet uncertainty remains over how international travel will recover. Several developers are likely keep a keen eye on the extent of the recovery this year of air travel before making a final call on whether to proceed.