Last week a syndicate of financial institutions led by Ulster Bank is reported to have taken control of the hotels that make up the D4 Hotel Group located in the Ballsbridge area of Dublin. Over six years ago the lenders had provided finance to Carlow property developer Sean Dunne to acquire the former Berkeley Court hotel and Jurys hotel in the upmarket area of Dublin in a deal worth some €400 million. It is reported that at the height of the property boom Mr Dunne paid some €125 million for the five-star Berkeley Court and €275 for Jurys Hotel.

The lenders have reportedly appointed Dalata Hotel Group to take over the management of the hotels in Ballsbridge. Dalata is run by Pat McCann, the former chief executive of the Jurys Doyle hotel group and in an ironic twist it was Mr McCann who was involved in the negotiation of the sale of the hotels to Mr Dunne back in 2005.

The initial plan was to build an exclusive high-rise mixed development on the site of the hotels and the centrepiece of the projected €1.5 billion development was to be a 37-storey tower. However, the plan was rejected by An... Click to read more about hotels in Dublin

It has been reported that Yelena Baturina, wife of the former mayor of Moscow Yury Luzhkov and one of the richest women in Russia, is poised to buy the Morrison Hotel in Dublin from Nama, the Irish state assets agency. It is believed that Nama is in the advanced stages of completing the sale of the Morrison, which has been on the market since September last year, and is expected to fetch between €20 and €25 million. This price is around half the value placed on the hotel by Anglo Irish Bank back in the heady days of 2006.

The Moscow Times reports that Baturina is bidding for the Dublin hotel through a London-based asset management vehicle. It is believed that the deal has not yet been completed but is expected to be signed this week. Baturina’s bid is thought to be the highest of a shortlist of three or four formally made to Nama at the close of 2011. The Russian business woman is reported to be worth some $1.2 billion and has a wide range of interests including construction and manufacturing as well as farming and property.

The Morrison Hotel was part of businessman Hugh O’Regan’s pub... Click to read more about hotels in Dublin

The O’Callaghan hotel group recently announced the completion of a major investment in its Dublin hotels. Despite the difficult trading conditions that many hotels in Dublin are currently experiencing this is the second major refurbishment process the group has embarked on in the last three years. In 2009 the group invested some €3.3m on a 21 bedroom extension to its Stephen’s Green hotel in the Irish capital. The O’Callaghan Group is a privately owned Dublin based hotel and apartment group whose properties include the O’Callaghan Alexander, Davenport, Stephen’s Green and Mont Clare hotels.

Bryan O’Callaghan, Head of Group Operations at the company, said that: “This investment is a very significant chapter in the success story of O’Callaghan Hotels Group. In what has been a challenging trading environment in the hospitality sector we have continued to invest in our business to offer our customers a consistently high level of service and care.”

The investment included a refurbishment of the hotel bedrooms in the St Stephen’s Green hotel as well as a major upgrade to the IT installations and energy efficiency the group’s Dublin hotels. The result is improved Wi-Fi systems with increased bandwidth and coverage and high-end Bose speakers with... Click to read more about hotels in Dublin

The two concerts that English band Take That will be playing in Dublin this weekend are proving to be  very lucrative for many of the city’s hotels that have been hard-pressed due to the downturn in trade from the on-going economic crisis. Take That are bringing their Progress tour to Dublin and will play two concerts on both Saturday and Sunday night. The concerts will take place in Croke Park and the crowd capacity over the two nights is expected to be somewhere around 165,000 in what may well prove to be the biggest music event of the year in Dublin.

The band has already arrived in Dublin and are reported to have booked the entire top floor of the Four Seasons hotel for themselves and their entourage. Ordinary fans, however, may not have the same luck if they have left it to the last minute to find a hotel room in the city. The Irish Times reported earlier in the week that the hotels.com website was showing that 235 hotels and guesthouses in Dublin had no availability left for Saturday night. Of those that did show availability it was reported that the Gresham had only a couple of... Click to read more about hotels in Dublin

The five star Four Seasons hotel on Simmonscourt Road in the Ballsbridge area of Dublin, a favourite haunt of developers and speculators during the height of the property boom, was put on the market at the end of last year with the sale being handled by property consultancy CB Richard Ellis. It is thought that CBRE initially targetted investment funds in Europe and the US as well as overseas proprietors of luxury hotels since, because of the depth of the domestic banking crisis and economic downturn, it was considered unlikely an Irish buyer would come forward.

Although no guide price was quoted initially for the 197 bedroom hotel, last year the Irish Times reported market sources as suggesting that the owners would be happy to sell the property for around €30 million. Even if the hotel were to achieve this price it would fall well short of the €50 million loan advanced by Anglo Irish Bank to Nollaig Partnership, the 18-strong syndicate that developed the hotel over ten years ago. Although the hotel is reported to have posted losses of around €2 million in 2009, trading has apparently picked up in the interim in line with various recent international... Click to read more about hotels in Dublin