Revenue booms at luxury Ashford Castle estate

Shifting attitudes to luxury spending and the receding of the Covid-19 pandemic last year drove a surge in trading revenue and earnings at the two high-end hotels on the Ashford Castle estate in Mayo.

However, the businesses are still finding it difficult to house workers despite building staff quarters in 2018 and are looking at “various options”, according to Ashford Castle’s general manager.

New accounts for Ashford Castle Hotel Ltd and The Lodge at Ashford Castle Ltd show the two Tollman family-owned businesses continued their pandemic recovery after being forced to close for much of 2020.

Speaking to The Irish Times, Niall Rochford, general manager of Ashford Castle Hotel, said the group was “very happy” with the results for the “first full year of trading” after the pandemic.

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Revenue at the five-star hotel more than doubled in 2022 to €27.2 million, well above pre-Covid levels of €22.9 million.

After tax, the hotel operator turned a €19.3 million profit for the year compared with a more than €3 million loss in 2021, significantly boosted by the reversal of a temporary €17.6 million write-down of the property’s value.

The charge was originally recognised in 2015 following a commercial valuation by Savills Ireland when the hotel was closed for a period for refurbishment.

Adjusted earnings from the luxury hotel’s main operations increased to €7.7 million last year, up from €4.2 million in 2021, the directors said in a report attached to the accounts.

Mr Rochford said the hotel saw strong demand from US tourists last year and “also a strong performance from the Irish market as well, which is particularly pleasing because we wouldn’t necessarily have seen that prior to Covid”.

He said: “I think the attitudes to five-star luxury has shifted. I think people are treating themselves a little bit more and we’re certainly benefiting from significant repeat customers, which we wouldn’t necessarily have had. I think people are seeing the value of spending money on something or an experience or a service that they can trust in the knowledge they’re going to get value even though they might be spending a lot of money.”

At the four-star Lodge, meanwhile, revenue climbed 87.4 per cent to almost €6.1 million but adjusted earnings slipped to €792,899 from more than €1 million in 2021 as the business grappled with a steep rise in costs, which climbed from €3.8 million to €5 million.

Both hotel properties experienced increases in costs over the year, according to the directors, the “main drivers” of which were food and labour costs.

At Ashford Castle, where staff levels increased from 264 to 326 as the hotel turned the corner from the pandemic, wage and salary costs jumped by almost €1 million to €8.4 million.

Mr Rochford said the biggest challenge hotels are facing now is accommodating staff amid a shortage of affordable accommodation to rent. The Red Carnation group, which owns the hotels, invested “significantly” in a 50-bedroom block of rooms for staff in 2018, he said.

“We thought that was going to cure all of our staffing accommodation issues since Covid, he said. “That is not the case. Currently, we’re renting a considerable amount of accommodation locally and transporting a lot of our staff to work.”

Mr Rochford said the hotel is looking at “various options right now”, including expanding its existing staff quarters to house workers.

Other luxury hotels around the country are hoping to address the situation with purpose-built staff accommodation.

The Merrion Hotel in Dublin said on Tuesday it is progressing plans to build staff quarters at a building it owns around the corner from the hotel in Dublin 2, while the owners of Powerscourt Hotel in Wicklow are seeking permission to build a 56-bedroom staff block on site in Enniskerry.