THE DALATA HOTEL Group has added another property to its fast-growing list as it revealed it was launching a new brand for over a dozen of its hotels.
The firm said it had agreed to buy the four-star Holiday Inn in Belfast for €25.6 million, the second hotel it will operate in the city where it already runs the Maldron Hotel Belfast.
The company also announced it was rolling out the Clayton Hotels brand across 13 properties after buying the Clayton Hotel in Galway earlier this year.
It will continue using the Maldron brand on another 14 hotels which it either has bought or manages.
The news came as Dalata, which will own 16 hotels across Ireland and the UK after the purchase, revealed a pre-tax profit of €4.2 million for 2014.
The company, now Ireland’s biggest hotel owner, raised €256 million when it floated on the stock market in March after it was set up in 2007 by former Jurys Doyle Hotel Group boss Pat McCann.
Dalata turned over €79 million last year but has since finished its €495 million buyout of nine former Moran Bewley hotels, all but one of which will be rebranded as Clayton hotels.
Moran Hotels paid about €570 million at the peak of the boom in 2008 for only six of the Bewley’s hotels, but the combined Moran Bewley’s chain was then left struggling through the recession under a mountain of debt.
Meanwhile, Dalata reported an overall occupancy rate of over 75% for the year and an average room rate of €76 for all its properties.
Dublin hotels growing
Chief executive McCann said all the company’s hotels made more money last year and it had spent all the funds raised in its float 12 months ahead of schedule.
We have benefited from the continued strong growth of the Dublin market and the start of recovery in the cities and towns outside of Dublin,” he said.
A recent report from PwC said Dublin hotel room prices were expected to grow at the fastest rate of any major European city this year and the next.
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