Dublin hotels see revenue growth of 9.1%

REVENUE growth in the Dublin hotel sector was 9.1% in September, according to the latest Deloitte Hotelbenchmark survey.

The increase in profitability of the capital’s hotels will put pressure on the business consortium who have put Gresham Hotels in play for a takeover following their failed €100m-plus bid for the company.

Despite a ruling from the Irish Takover Panel that Gresham is “in an offer period” for the purposes of disclosures by any of the parties involved, no further disclosures of holdings over 1% in the company have been made.

The latest Deloitte Hotelbenchmark data for September for Dublin and London in September showed continued strong performance in terms of occupancy, with some recovery in room rates, resulting in an uplift in revenue per available room.

Davy Stockbrokers hotel analyst Barry Dixon disclosed that Dublin occupancy levels increased by 7.2% compared to September 2002, while room rates were 2.6% higher.

In London, the latest PKF data indicates that occupancy levels increased by 3.3% to 82.2%, the highest level for September since 2000. “In previous cycles, significant sector outperformance was achieved when both room rates and occupancy levels increased at the same time.

“Occupancy levels have been increasing since the lows of March/April this year. Room rates, however, have continued to decline throughout the summer,” he said.

Mr Dixon believes this may now be changing with two months of increases being reported in Dublin and possibly some early signs of room rate recovery in Britain.

Goodbody Stockbrokers analyst Peter Horgan said the increase in revenues was good news for Gresham rival Jurys Doyle, who control 25% of the Dublin market.