The owners of Ashford Castle estate in Cong, Co Mayo, bought homes in a nearby estate to accommodate staff against the backdrop of the housing crisis and ongoing labour shortages in the hospitality sector.
Niall Rochford, general manager of the five-star Ashford Castle Hotel on the estate, told The Irish Times the business continues to struggle to find staff and has had to expand its employee accommodation due to a lack of suitable housing.
The Tollman family-owned business, which invested upwards of €1.5 million in a staff housing scheme on the estate in 2017, is now housing some 150 workers in total, Mr Rochford said, between the estate itself, local rental properties and houses it has acquired in the local area.
“Just this year we’ve just purchased property in Ballinrobe in a housing estate because we’re finding it so impossible to try to get staff accommodation or rented accommodation in the area,” he said. “Ensuring that our team get the best quality experience – not just in work, but outside of work – was really important to us. As a result that was one of the strategies and initiatives that we put in play.”
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Mr Rochford was speaking following the publication of 2023 financial results for Ashford Castle Hotel Ltd and The Lodge at Ashford Castle Ltd, the company behind the four-star Lodge hotel on the estate.
After-tax profits at the larger, five-star Ashford Castle Hotel were down sharply from €19.3 million in 2022 to €1.9 million last year. In 2022 the company wrote back impairment charge of more than €17 million taken against the value of its properties, Mr Rochford said, which boosted the 2022 earnings.
On a like-for-like basis Mr Rochford said costs rose by around €2 million from €20.1 million to around €22.77 million in 2023 amid higher food and energy prices. Overall, trading revenues at Ashford Castle surged 16 per cent from €27.1 million to €31.5 million, while revenues at the Lodge increased 7.4 per cent to €6.5 million.
Mr Rochford said 2023 was a “strong and positive year” for the estate but not without headwinds. He said the increase in revenues was largely due to the strong trade from North America while the domestic market in the early part of 2023 had also been very strong. “Obviously we did have some headwinds in terms of the VAT increase from September in 2023 and supplier [price] increases. The cost of doing business continues to increase, but we were happy with the result in 2023.”
After a quieter start to 2024 than expected, Mr Rochford said the estate was poised to have a strong finish to the year, with US markets continuing to perform well. “There was a softening in the market, both domestic and internationally, in the first three months. But since then the market has responded very strongly. We’ve had – we are having, probably – the most successful second and third quarter we’ve ever experienced.”
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