Hotels claim ‘strong’ Christmas Day dinner bookings

Hotels opening for Christmas lunch and dinner have seen "strong" bookings this year, the Irish Hotels Federation said.

IHF president Stephen McNally said while not all hotels were open for Christmas dinner, those who were had reported good demand.

“From the hotels that I know, they are saying their numbers are very strong,” he said.

"There's a lot of hotels open this year for Christmas - probably more than usual. So the demand has been a bit higher. Some guests come over to Ireland and visit relatives for most of the time they're here. So they'll use the hotel for accommodation and maybe breakfast and spend Christmas Day with relatives."

In particular, demand for three-day Christmas packages had improved since the downturn, Mr McNally said.

“It’s all-in and people can just put their feet up because everything is catered for,” he said.

‘Confidence improved’

“What I’ve noticed most this year is that confidence has improved generally, whether it’s Christmas parties, lunches or Christmas dinner.”

Mr McNally said it was more of a “niche” business than hotels opening “wholesale”. “It suits some and it just doesn’t suit others.”

Mr McNally said many staff in hotels enjoyed working on Christmas Day because it brought them together with colleagues and they would also get lunch and some extra pay.

He said most people working on the day would probably be paid double time because of the bank holiday.

Finish by 5pm

However, most hotels would have one or two sittings for lunch and finish by about 5pm.

A staff member at the Herbert Park hotel in Dublin said the hotel would serve Christmas lunch to about 100 people and was fully booked.

Adrian Cummins, chief executive of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, said most restaurants would close on Christmas Day but would open again on December 26th. Bookings in general were up about 10 per cent, he said.

During 2015, Dublin had performed “extremely well” for the industry and the rest of the country had done “well”.

“The recovery has not really reached into the provincial towns yet,” he added.

Mr Cummins said the cost to restaurants of doing business needed to be reduced as many were still paying high rates and suffering from a regulatory burden.