Chill wind blows across hotel and restaurant trade

THE sustained Christmas freeze has seen some sharp reductions in trade for restaurants and hotels.

Despite increased bookings in the north Dublin and Shannon areas due to airport closures in regions affected by snow, hotels are reporting an up to 70% decrease in their normal Christmas week business, according to the Irish Hotels Federation.

The Dublin City Centre Business Association also reported restaurants, cinemas and theatres were suffering from the adverse weather conditions as fewer people stayed around the city at night.

The drop-off in business compounded an already difficult situation, with an IBEC Retail Ireland survey finding that two-thirds of their members said business was poor before the bad weather hit.

The effects of the poor weather for restaurants and hotels came as studies found that almost 80% of firms did not pay for or effectively cancelled the staff Christmas party this year.

A Bloomberg survey of several high-end restaurants in Dublin, including Chapter One, Ely and Town Bar and Grill, reported a large number of bookings over Christmas. However, overall takings, even in busy establishments, were still down on average by 20% due to customers reducing their spend on expensive items such as high-quality wine.

The bad weather also took its toll, with a spokesman for Chapter One, currently Dublin’s most sought-after eatery, stating; “Christmas bookings are on a par with last year, except for the weather which destroyed early December for a lot of us, with 80% cancellations.

“We’ve started to see last-minute cancellations and people turning up with fewer guests than then they reserved for, so that’s tough. January and February will be tough.”

It is estimated one restaurant a day is closing while 139 hotels are now under the control of NAMA and 40 are in receivership.