Clayton and Maldron owner hails June restart as vital for recovery

Outgoing Dalata Hotel Group CEO Pat McCann and CEO designate Dermot Crowley. The group - which owns the Clayton and Maldron chains - is eyeing a strong rebound following June's reopening.

The owner of the Clayton and Maldron hotel chains has said the early June re-opening will be “hugely positive” and “very important” for the recovery of the industry.

The Dalata Hotel Group said it suffered a €3.6m loss in the first three months of this year. 

With its hotels in Ireland and the UK only open for essential workers, occupancy levels have been between 13% and 16% across its regions since January.

Dalata said it now expects to see strong recovery in the second half of the year, with the Government proposing a re-opening of hotels on June 2. 

Speaking after the group’s AGM, chief executive designate Dermot Crowley said regional Ireland is likely to re-open strongly, with Dalata’s Dublin hotels also likely to see a boost despite its business in the capital being largely dependent on in-bound and business tourism, which will take longer to re-open.

Hotels in the UK – where Dalata has 12 hotels and plans for more – are set to re-open next month. The group is set to benefit from that also, given that 70% of UK tourism spend comes from domestic consumers.

Mr Crowley said Dalata would have been financially secure enough to withstand re-opening of the sector being put back to later in the summer, but said an early June re-start will be hugely significant and positive given that June, July, August and September are the four busiest months for Irish tourism.

A full re-opening of Irish construction, next month, will also allow for Dalata to complete three hotels it is building in Dublin, including one at Croke Park. 

The three are due to open this year, next year and in 2024.

Dalata has previously suggested 2024 is the most realistic timeframe for it to fully recovery to pre-Covid 2019 revenue levels. 

However, outgoing chief executive Pat McCann said he would now be more ambitious than that, with the expectation that recovery momentum should build throughout the remainder of this year and pick up pace in 2022 and 2023.

Dalata said it is not against a new domestic holiday voucher scheme to replace the failed Stay and Spend scheme, but favours the continuation of supports like the wage subsidy scheme, commercial rates waiver and 9% Vat rate for hospitality.