Hotel Bookings Looking Strong

Hotel bookings around big events are “strong” as the economy continues to reopen, the chief executive of Dalata has said.

“The type of bookings that are booked far in advance would be around events – the big concerts, big matches – and they are strong as you would expect,” said Dermot Crowley, CEO of Ireland’s biggest hotel group.

"There is a huge programme of events in places like Dublin, Manchester, right around Cork, Limerick, Galway [bookings] are strong around those events.

“As well, we have tour groups from primarily North America and Europe, [who] would book in advance, and again they look quite strong. Obviously they are travelling for the first time in over two years, so that looks positive as well,” he added.

Overall, the “vast bulk” of the company’s hotel bookings are “very late”.

“People tend to make their decisions late, it could be two, four days in advance. It is always very hard to say what future bookings look like,” Mr Crowley said.

His comments come as the company, whose brands include the Clayton and Maldron hotels, reported a loss before tax of €11.4m in 2021, down from a loss of €111.5m a year earlier, according to annual results.

In 2019 Dalata reported a profit of €89.7m.

Source - Ellie Donnelly, Independent.ie