As many as 24 new hotels comprising 4,500 rooms will be delivered in Dublin by the end of 2023, according to new figures.
Despite a significant increase in the number of hotels being constructed in the capital in recent years, the market pre-Covid remained under supplied, according to property adviser Savills Ireland.
It says this resulted in high room occupancy and low availability, which was damaging to the city’s reputation and ability to compete with other European destinations.
"With local and inbound tourism expected to return to pre-pandemic levels in the next two to three years, Dublin's increased supply of hotel rooms will provide value and choice, which will be good for Irish tourism," said Tom Barrett, director of hotels and leisure at Savills.
According to the company, 2,100 rooms will be completed by the end of this year, with 1,600 expected in 2022 and 800 in 2023. These figures mark a 50 per cent increase on the 3,000 rooms delivered between 2018 and 2020.
Among the new hotels opening in the capital this summer are the Hampton by Hilton Four Courts; Beckett Locke, next to the 3Arena; the Wren, located in the centre of Dublin between Grafton Street and Dame Street, and the Weatherspoons-owned Keavan’s Port Hotel on Camden Street.
The four-star Holiday Inn Dublin Airport and the Zanzibar Locke have been the only two new hotels to open in Dublin since Covid-19 hit Ireland 17 months ago.
Other cities
According to Savills, Dublin hotel occupancy for the first six months of 2021 was 20 per cent, with full-year occupancy expected to grow closer to 30 per cent – down from 82 per cent in 2019. While the rate is on a par with that seen in many other cities it is in fact considerably higher than in Amsterdam, Lisbon and Prague, where rates are between 10 per cent and 14 per cent.
Dublin performs badly versus cities in Britain however, with occupancy rates of 30 per cent or higher in Liverpool, Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham. In London, the occupancy rate stands at 29 per cent for the first six months of the year.
