Luxury hotels close with loss of 72 jobs

Two luxury hotels in west Dublin, opened less than 18 months ago, are to close their doors with the loss of 72 jobs.

The Glashaus Hotel closed yesterday and the Tallaght Cross Hotel will cease trading this weekend. Both hotels are owned by property developer Liam Carroll.

The 186-bedroom Tallaght Cross opened in February last year and cost €20 million to develop. Its sister hotel, the 48-bedroom Glashaus, began trading in September 2007.

The hotels form part of Tallaght Cross Town Centre which has been developed beside The Square shopping centre and Tallaght hospital. They were both aimed at the top end of the business market.

Rates at the hotels had been sharply reduced over the last six months to deal with pressure in the market, but the reductions were not enough to sustain viability at the hotels.

The future of the two buildings has not yet been decided.

Three other hotels, the Abberly Court, the Plaza Hotel and the Tower Hotel, also operate in the same area of Dublin and, with Mr Carroll’s hotels, offered 400 hotel bedrooms in the suburb. A few miles away, the Louis Fitzgerald Hotel, opened in 2007, has 190 bedrooms and, nearby at Kingswood, the Comfort Inn has 129.

The rapid growth in hotel facilities in Tallaght, with a population of over 80,000, was triggered by the expansion of business activities in west and south Dublin.

Yesterday, the Tallaght Cross and the Glashaus websites were both forwarding inquiries to the Alliance at the Gasworks, which offers short-term apartment accommodation in the converted Ringsend gasworks building, also owned by Mr Carroll.

Michael Skehan, general manager of the hotels, said they were closing due to current economic conditions. A lot of very committed, hardworking staff were being let go, he said.

The closures follow a number of high-profile hotel shutdowns last year including Capella Castlemartyr in Co Cork and the Woodstock Hotel, Ennis, Co Clare.

The tourism market is expected to contract further this year and more closures are anticipated.