Dublin 4's loss is set to become Citywest's gain, with a number of senior managers from the Burlington Hotel set to switch to Jim Mansfield's ever-expanding hotel and golf complex in Saggart.

Having dried the tears from his eyes following the Burlo's closure this week, general manager John Clifton is planning to take a month off before heading to Citywest to take over the running of the four-star hotel.

Clifton, who spent 32 years at the Burlo, is expected to be joined at Citywest by about 10 of his former colleagues. Final negotiations took place in Saggart yesterday.

This is viewed as something of a coup for Mansfield, who has been keen to hire a senior general manager for some time. The departure in early 2006 of experienced hotelier John Glynn, once Mansfield's right-hand man at Citywest, left a large gap in the business that the larger-than-life entrepreneur has struggled to fill.

Clifton's arrival will coincide with the opening of 452 new bedrooms at the sprawling Citywest complex at a cost of €44 million. This will bring the room count to a staggering 1,750, including suites and apartments.

When the Burlo opened its doors in 1972, it was then Ireland's biggest hotel with more than 400 rooms. The Burlo was also once the king of large-scale banqueting and conferences in Dublin, a crown that Mansfield's hotel now wears, with Citywest a regular haunt for GAA and Fianna Fáil gatherings.

Citywest, we're told, had a bumper year in 2007 and business in January is said to be brisk.

Further development is in the pipeline. Mansfield is planning to build a second conference centre at Citywest and is providing €13 million towards funding an extension of the Luas to the area.

It just remains to be seen how Clifton gels with Mansfield, whose hands-on and slightly unorthodox approach to business is not everyone's cup of tea.