Hoteliers to withhold €30m rates

HOTELIERS are to cut their €90 million annual local authority rates bill by €30m in protest against a nine-year delay in revaluing their properties which has cost the industry hundreds of millions of euro.

Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) president Paul Gallagher said the only response that can be given to a “stony silence” from The Valuation Office and local authorities invited to engage with individual hotels in relation to discussing unjustifiable rates is for hotels to now only pay what they can afford.

“We have been put in this position by the Valuation Office which after nine years since the enactment of The Valuation Act 2001, has carried out revisions of rateable valuations in just two of the 88 rateable areas in the country.

“It has ignored numerous letters from individual hotels over the past three months, seeking to know when they can expect to have their properties listed for revision of valuation.

“Our members are literally up in arms as to what to do now and where to go. We have appealed to local authorities to introduce a 30% waiver of rates for hotels and guesthouses pending the completion of the countrywide revision of valuations by the Valuation Office. Neither the local authorities or the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is willing to address this issue which is a big contributor in sending hotels to the wall each week,” Mr Gallagher said.

The IHF leader said that every other supplier and business in the country understands the severity of the economic situation and what needs to be done to keep businesses alive and find workable solutions

“The Minister for the Environment, The Valuation Office and local authorities are simply ignoring or rejecting these reasonable approaches to them,” said Mr Gallagher, who is general manager of Buswells Hotel

He called on the minister to immediately instruct local authorities to introduce a rates waiver for hoteliers who simply do not have the funds to pay. He particularly urged them not take legal actions which would force hotels or guesthouses to close or go into receivership or liquidation.

“This issue is causing a major crisis for the hotel sector and we cannot stand idly by while local authority charges and rates are not reduced to take account of the inability of the hoteliers to pay them,” concluded Mr Gallagher.

The IHF said the 900 hotels encompassing 60,000 bedrooms pay €90m a year to local authorities in rates. This equates to an average of €1,500 per bedroom and, in many cases, rising to as high as €2,500-€3,000 per room in some local authority areas.

“The Federation’s 900 members pay 6% of the total rates base in this country; this is an unreasonable burden on such a small number of businesses,” he said.