Dalata counts the Covid cost ahead of 'harshest' new year for hotels

Shares in owner of Clayton and Maldron chains dopped after it said trading in the second half of 2020 had been continually disrupted by Covid restrictions

Dalata chief executive Pat McCann, who has seen the hotel group's shares fall some 33% in the past 12 months. 

Ireland’s largest hotel operator has warned that the outlook for 2021 remains “uncertain”, while an industry group has said hotels and guesthouses around the country are braced for a “bleak” winter and are facing into their harshest new year period ever.

Shares in the Dalata Hotel Group – which owns the Clayton and Maldron chains – dipped after it said trading in the second half of this year had been continually disrupted by Covid restrictions, and that uncertainty surrounds its overall outlook and opening dates for new hotels.