At the recent Irish Hotels Federation annual conference in Killarney, it was reported that advance hotel bookings were down for this year, compared with 2024. The percentage appears small – 2 per cent – but that equates to about €100 million of lost income. So how is 2025 looking for three hoteliers, all of whom come from generational family-run hotels?
Sandymount Hotel, Dublin
On Herbert Road in Dublin’s Sandymount Hotel, there is a portrait in the lobby of Gerard Loughran’s grandparents, George and Rosaleen, who started the hotel in 1955. “It was a four-bedroomed guest house at the beginning,” hotel director Loughran says. The hotel, which is within sight of the Aviva Stadium, and has a sculpture of rugby players at the forecourt, now has 175 rooms.
Seventy years into business, the Sandymount has 110 staff. Since Covid, 12 staff members now stay on site in 12 former hotel rooms. “We could sell those rooms 10 times over, but it’s not all about the money. We have given 12 of the rooms to our staff who mainly work in housekeeping,” says Loughran.
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It’s partly due to the cost of accommodation in Dublin, and partly a way of keeping staff, which is what most areas of hospitality aspire to do. These staff members also get all their meals and avail of the laundry service, paying a token fee to cover everything.
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“Our staff tend to stay,” says Loughran. “My father’s PA has been here 25 years, the housekeeping manger has here 38 years, the HR supervisor 20 years. They are part of our family. The main thing in any hotel has to be staff. Staff make a hotel, and keeping staff is so important. If you’re constantly changing your staff, you have inconsistency of service. A good hotel is all about the hospitality; making you feel welcome.”
Then he says: “You do get more céad míle fáilte down the country. It has got a little bit lost in Dublin.”
Since 2020, the hotel’s costs have gone up 170 per cent, says Loughran, between electricity, gas and wages. The Sandymount’s occupancy was 72 per cent last year. “Ideally this year it will be 74 per cent.”
The hotel has reduced rates, which means the business is “slightly up on occupancy, and slightly down on rate”. The aim is that the rates will get guests in the door, and then they will spend in the restaurant and the bar. The hotel charges per room; currently €130 midweek, and about €175 at weekends, but that varies during the year. When there are events on, room rates go up.
The Sandymount Hotel has many corporate guests, especially during the week. “Sustainability is so important for the corporate market; they will look for that before they book,” Loughran says. The hotel has five charging points for electric vehicles, all free to use.
“Staying in a hotel is not just about a bedroom any more; it’s about a full guest experience, the bar, restaurant.” The bedrooms have smart TVs, Dyson hair dryers and espresso machines. “We have Rituals products in the bathroom. People look for products now.”
Arnolds Hotel, Dunfanaghy, Co Donegal
Aisling Arnold is the general manager of Arnolds Hotel in Dunfanaghy, Co Donegal. The business was started by her great-grandfather William in 1922, as a guest house with 14 rooms and full board. At that time, their guests were one of two categories: short-stay tourists, fishermen and commercial travellers; and long-term residents, such as local doctors or pharmacists. William Arnold registered the business as a hotel during the second World War, as it was easier to get food rations that way. It was a temperance establishment until 1968.
Staff are key to a hotel experience and stay. They can make or break the guest’s experience
— Aisling Arnold
In her father Derek’s time, long-term guests continued to reside there. He recalls a retired Army captain staying for three years; he finally died at the hotel. Those were the days of full board. There was a garden and small farm behind the hotel, where vegetables and fruit were grown for the table, and where chickens were kept, and cows provided milk. Arnold recalls as a child being in the hotel when it still had full board: a cooked breakfast, scones and shortbread at 11, lunch, and supper in the evening. “You didn’t go home hungry from your holidays.”
“We have 31 rooms now, and 72 staff,” Arnold says. The staff look after the accommodation, on-site restaurant, bar and adjacent cafe. “Staff are key to a hotel experience and stay. They can make or break the guest’s experience, for example, being greeted by the front desk by first name if you are a repeat guest. It is really important the staff engage, and also [know] when not to engage. The welcome you get when you walk in the door sets the tone for your entire stay. Our guests get to know the staff and vice versa.”
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Arnolds opens on a seasonal basis. Most of its guests – 65 per cent – come from Northern Ireland, with 10 per cent from the Republic and the rest from elsewhere. Their occupancy last year was 69 per cent. Right now, room rates midweek are €120 for two people B&B, and €150 at the weekend.
“I’d say this year is going to be a challenge,” says Arnold. “All the increasing costs came at once – VAT, labour, energy, food and drink items.”
Arnolds is a small hotel in rural Ireland, and deliberately does not aspire to trying to replicate hotel facilities more common to large cities.
“We are a family-run hotel, and we try to keep the hotel in keeping with its heritage. People want a very comfortable bed, a powerful warm shower, and charging points in a room.”
Dooley’s Hotel, Waterford city
The name Dooley’s is over the hotel in Waterford city that has now been run by three generations of women, none of them actually called Dooley. Sisters Tina and Margaret Darrer explain that when their grandmother Rita Nolan bought the hotel, the existing name was Dooley and she was “too superstitious” to change it.
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The sisters are co-managers and co-owners. “We do a bit of everything, including the washing up from time to time,” says Tina, who last rolled up her sleeves in the kitchen and pitched in just last weekend. “Just to give them a dig out. It is all about team work. Regional hotels are really important to the community they serve. We buy local and use local tradespeople.”
They have never considered changing the name of the hotel, which their grandmother bought in 1947 as a going concern, and which then had eight bedrooms. “Dooley’s is known as a local institution; it is part of the fabric of the buildings,” they say.
There is definitely a recession coming in, because our occupancy has been down for the first two months of this year. I am slightly nervous about where we are going
— Mags Darrer
Back when their grandmother was running the hotel, there were many long-term guests, usually doctors. “One room was called the Paddy Kirwan room, after a bookie who lived there full time. Hotels were like boarding house back then.”
The hotel now has 112 bedrooms. Between full and part-time workers, it has 90 staff. “We have generations of families who have worked in the hotel,” says Tina.
“Staff are everything in a hotel experience,” says Mags. “Every hotel has bedrooms and a food offering or a bar. You might have five stars but the experience will be soulless if there is no connection with the team; your staff.”
“Hotels are about service and about people,” says Tina. “The banter, the bit of fun. We have the ability to make someone’s day.”
They see one of the advantages of being a family-run, independent hotel as being able to respond to situations more quickly than if they were a chain hotel.
“We can react to things quicker, if we see things that need to be changed,” says Mags. “If an oven broke, we can go out and get a new one – it doesn’t have to wait for a decision to be made further up. If there is any investment needed in the hotel, we can decide on that very soon.”
Dooley’s gets a lot of domestic guests and lately these guests are not staying for as long as they usually would; ie for a full weekend. “When the market tightens, people just come for one night,” says Mags.
They charge per person; at present it is €116 for two people midweek B&B. On a Saturday it can vary between €149 and €159.
“There are so many costs you can’t change. Heating is a big one. At home you might put a jumper on, but you have to have the hotel warm when people come in the door,” says Mags.
“If we got 67 per cent occupancy this year, we’d be happy,” says Tina. “We are a regional hotel. We don’t have the occupancy that Dublin or Kerry has. There is definitely a recession coming in, because our occupancy has been down for the first two months of this year. In January, it was 37 per cent. I am slightly nervous about where we are going.”
