While most of us are opening presents, and settling down to enjoy the festivities together, many more will be putting in a busy day at work. And yet, as Áilín Quinlan discovered, Christmas is a very special day for them too.

Revenues at the firm that operates the five-star Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin soared to €35m last year, as its new owners started to reap the benefits of an overhaul.

1. Crime Writers

The Saddle Room at the Shelbourne Hotel is a steak and seafood restaurant with old-school classics like ham-hock terrine.

A man jailed for damaging a Claude Monet painting estimated to be worth €10m has lost an appeal against conviction.

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Before paying rent and interest costs, profits at the four-star hotel resort Carton House climbed 68% to €1.55m in 2014.

The company that operates the five-star Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin last year increased its operating profits by 13.5% to €37,117.

New research shows that coach tourist numbers reached their highest level in recent years in 2014, when 369,000 overseas visitors opted to use this mode of transport to see Ireland — an annual increase of 26%.

HOTELS in Cork, Kerry, Clare and Tipperary all feature in the latest burst of investor and end-user activity in the hospitality sector market.

BOYNE BECKONS

The resurgent economy and continuing weakness of the euro have helped Dublin’s hotel sector to the top of the pile in terms of activity and room revenues.

Joe Schmidt’s incredible year was recognised yesterday with his confirmation as Philips Sports Manager of the Year, but the main topic of interest at the Shelbourne Hotel was the day that must rank as his most painful.

A CHEF clutching a cluster of small copper saucepans is part of the promotion for the new four-part series about the Shelbourne Hotel being broadcast by RTÉ.

Here’s our spoiler-free guide to what you should watch on the box tonight.

The five-star Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, increased its operating profits by 44% to €4.5m in 2012.

One of the country’s best-known hoteliers, Jerry O’Reilly, is confident that bankers to his five-star hotel, the Aghadoe Heights in Killarney, Co Kerry, will continue to roll up bank interest loan payments on the business.

Two men have appeared in court charged with criminal damage of two paintings at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin.

Ireland is one of top-four active markets in Europe for portfolio transactions, says Margaret Kelleher.

With exports to Germany, Italy and the UK, Solaris Botanicals’ western-style herbal teas are winning new customers, and it is eyeing a surprising new marketplace — China, writes Trish Dromey.

The collapse of an online tour operator has left a trail of unpaid debts, with some of Ireland’s best-known five-star hotels incurring losses.

Michelle Obama rounds off the family’s whistle-stop trip to Ireland today with a visit to one of the country’s famous national parks.

She’s married to the most powerful man in the world and is used to eating haute cuisine with heads of state.

The First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, and her daughters Malia and Sasha, will explore her Irish heritage during a visit to Trinity College in Dublin on Monday.

Pre-tax losses at the company that manages the five-star Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin narrowed by 98% to €104,282 last year.

When Grace Kelly came to Dublin, she always requested the same room in The Shelbourne Hotel. Today it is known as the Princess Grace suite, writes Vickie Maye.

Julia Roberts is enjoying a family vacation in the West of Ireland.

Deirdre Reynolds takes THAT book on a tour around Dublin to judge the reaction of the Irish public

A SUM of €68,648.

Fittingly, the lacklustre referendum campaign finally died of embarrassment in the very place it had been trapped in all along — a dead end.

The directors of Absolute Hotel in Limerick have stated that the hotel will ultimately be sold as part of an overall debt reduction plan with Nama.

THE company that operates one of the best-known five-star hotels in Ireland, Aghadoe Heights, Killarney, Co Kerry, returned to record an operating profit of over €110,000 for the first 10 months of last year.

PRE-TAX losses at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin narrowed to over €900,000 in 2010, new figures show.

THE Shelbourne Hotel is an institution at any time of year.

LOSSES widened at the main property company of Jerry O’Reilly, one of the country’s best known developers and hoteliers, to €40 million last year.

HAD YOU approached Gerald Lawless, when he was a teenager in Galway, and said the word ‘Dubai’ he probably would have thought you were enquiring about some sort of purchase he had made.

PRE-tax losses at the company that manages the luxurious five-star Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin increased threefold to €7.6 million last year, new accounts show.

A disabled first-time buyer used his compensation pay-out from a motorbike crash to snap up a block of flats at Ireland’s latest distressed property auction.

EVENTS of the past week suggest the obsession with property as an investment vehicle in this country is far from dead.

THE country’s first major fire-sale of repossessed properties seems to suggest there is some life left in the property market ... if the price is right.