5-star hotel re-opens at affordable rates

IN the giddy days of plenty, five-star hotels charged stellar prices, but leaner times have brought charges crashing back to earth.

And so it is that the five-star Castlemartyr Hotel, opened to the bubbling of Bolly in August 2007, and charging a whopping e540 a night, has been humbled into opening its doors at a cost per person sharing of less than e100 a night.

The reality check was carried out by its new owners, the Dromoland Collection Group, and today a new era of affordability begins.