Dublin hotel occupancy reached record high in 2018

Occupancy at Dublin’s hotels reached a record level last year helped by a large number of events held in the capital.

According to data from travel research company STR, Dublin’s hotels far outperformed their European peers as absolute occupancy rose to 83.8 per cent - the highest level for any year in STR’s Dublin database.

Revenue per available room (RevPar) recorded its eighth consecutive year of growth. Compared to 2017, RevPar rose 7.2 per cent to €121.70.

STR analysts said they attribute the strong performance to a large number of events including the Six Nations Rugby Championship, the St Patrick's Festival and a number of concerts from performers such as U2, Florence and the Machine and Snow Patrol.

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Last year saw fewer UK visitors travel to the Republic on the back of Brexit, although tourists from other jurisdictions compensated for that. In the 11-month period to the end of November, the latest month for which figures are available, more than 9.8 million people travelled to the Republic, an increase of 6.8 per cent on the same period in 2017.

Outperforming

Ultimately, that led to Dublin hotels far outperforming their European rivals both in occupancy and revenue terms. Europe’s hotel industry as a whole recorded a 1.2 per cent increase in occupancy to 72.4 per cent while RevPar grew 5.2 per cent to €81.43.

The construction of hotels is picking up and almost 1,000 new rooms were added to the Dublin market last year including the 145-bedroom Iveagh Gardens Hotel on Harcourt Street and the 140-bedroom Maldron Hotel on Kevin Street in Dublin 8.

A further 2,500 hotel rooms are due to open either this year or next.