On Friday the National Asset Management Agency moved to take control of more hotels in Dublin. The Dublin hotels in question were all connected to property developer Paddy Kelly. The Independent reported that Dublin-based NAMA took the action as a deal could not be agreed where assets would be sold off to pay outstanding debts amounting to more than €1.5 billion. The move means that NAMA will now get the benefit of the rental income from the properties in question and eventually the hotels could be sold off to help clear any outstanding debts. The hotels taken over include the Clarion hotels in both the IFSC and at Dublin airport as well as the Clarion Liffey Valley in Dublin 22, the Maldron Hotel Citywest on the Naas Road, the Days Inn on Talbot Street and the Marriott in Ashbourne.
The hotels have over 1,000 members of staff on their rotas and will continue to trade as the move by NAMA is related mainly to the properties themselves rather than actual the management of the hotels. As Frankie Whelehan, who looks after the four Clarion properties put it, “The only thing this means is that someone else is getting the rent.” The receiver from KPMG also said that it would be “business as usual” in the months ahead.
In more positive news for Dublin hotels the latest HotStats Survey from TRI Hospitality Consulting shows that hotels in Dublin were able to increase profits by some 40% in February in spite of the economic crisis in Ireland. The hotels in the Dublin sample for the survey showed that they had managed to drive up the Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR) by a third and Total Revenue per Available Room (TrevPAR) by some 16.4 percent. This lift in RevPAR meant that the hotels surveyed in Dublin could report a Gross Operating Profit per Available Room (GOPPAR) of €30.20, which is an increase of some 40.4 percent on the performance of February 2010. Jonathan Langston, managing director of TRI Hospitality Consulting said, “The continued increase in the Dublin market performance is remarkable, particularly when considering the negative headlines in the Irish economy and significant increase in hotel supply severely affecting hotel performance over the past two years.”