Dromoland secures €700 average room rate in July as US visitors return

Record average room rates will see revenues double this year at the company that operates the five-star Dromoland Castle hotel in Co Clare.

General manager Mark Nolan said the hotel was charging an average of €700 a room in July and had performed “strongly” this year.

He was commenting as new accounts for Dromoland Castle Holdings Ltd for 2021 show a €4.2 million swing in earnings as the group recovered from a pandemic-plagued 2020 to record pretax profits of €891,242. The hotel reopened to guests on June 2nd last year after a Covid-19 enforced closure for the first five months of the year.

Revenues at the business – which also operates the Inn at Dromoland – surged 68 per cent to €12.16 million.

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The projected doubling of revenues this year is based on a strong return of US visitors and a full 12 months of operation, said chief financial officer Joe Hughes. Mr Nolan said 60 per cent of visitors this year have been US guests, with numbers from the US now close to pre-pandemic figures.

Mr Hughes said that Government Covid-19 wage supports had been very important to the business last year, accounting for €4.96 million of €6.08 million the business received from Government in a year when operating profit came in at €1.27 million.

The profit last year takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €2.5 million.

Mr Nolan said the outlook for next year was good but that, like all hotel businesses, it is facing challenges such as inflation, soaring energy costs and the increase in VAT next March.

The hotel staged the Women’s Irish Open this year, with around 25,000 spectators coming to Dromoland over four days in September. The hotel made a loss on hosting the event after investing around €1.5 million in it.

“On its first year back after 10 years, it was unlikely to break even in the first year,” Mr Nolan said, adding that he was talking to the various stakeholders on staging the event again at Dromoland next year.

Numbers employed in the business jumped 75 per cent last year to 315 from 179 in 2020, with staff costs totalling €8.24 million.