Earnings at Dalata ‘in line with market expectations’

IRELAND’S largest hotel operator Dalata has said earnings will be “in line with market expectations” despite tougher than expected market conditions in Dublin in the second half.

The group, which has four hotels in Northern Ireland, said revenue per available room in Dublin is down 3.2% for the 11 months to November 30.

That was compared to a decline of 1.4% for the first half of the year.

Dalata Hotel Group owns the Clayton Hotel on Ormeau Avenue, Belfast as well as Maldron Hotels in Belfast, at Belfast International Airport and in Londonderry.

The firm has also has signed an agreement to lease a new hotel to be built in Liverpool.

The new Maldron hotel will be of part of a mixed-use scheme being jointly developed by the Elliot Group and Valorem.

The Park Lane site is next to the Liverpool One retail and leisure complex and within walking distance of all the city centre attractions.

The hotel will be made up of around 260 rooms, a restaurant, a bar and meeting room facilities.

The proposed hotel secured planning permission this month and construction should start in the first half of 2020. It is expected that the hotel will open in mid-2022.

The Dublin market continued to be impacted by an increase in VAT, the additional supply of hotel rooms and a reduction in the number of events in October and November, Dalata said in a trading update.

The performance of the company’s regional Ireland portfolio in the second half of the year was similar to the first half of the year. Like-for-like revenue per available room for the portfolio decreased by 0.7% for the 11 month period.

Meanwhile, in the UK, the portfolio hotels “continued to perform very strongly,” with revenue per room increasing by 3%.

“Our UK regional city hotels are performing particularly well and all outperformed their city markets in terms of revenue per available room change versus 2018,” Dalata said.

Despite the “softer” market conditions in Ireland, the company said that effective cost control together with the positive impact of its hotels opened or extended during 2018 and early this year has ensured that group earnings will be “in line with market expectations” for the year.

The hotel operator was founded in June 2007 by Pat McCann, who initially acquired a group of companies from Choice Hotels Ireland.