HotelMarket:With a fifth hotel due to open this month in Tallaght, competition is driving down room rates locally, writes Joan Scales
Property developer Liam Carroll is to open his second hotel at Tallaght, Co Dublin, later this month.
The 186-bedroom, €20 million Tallaght Cross Hotel will be a sister hotel to the Glashaus which has been trading since last September. When the latest venture gets underway on February 22nd, it will bring to five the number of hotels in Tallaght.
Both the Tallaght Cross and the Glashaus form part of Tallaght Cross Town Centre which has been developed beside The Square shopping centre and Tallaght Hospital.
Marks & Spencer is anchoring the scheme which also includes further retail units, offices, apartments and a large car-park.
Carroll's new hotels will be in competition with the Abberly Court, the Plaza Hotel and the Tower Hotel which opened last July, making this suburb one of the best serviced for hotels, with more than 400 bedrooms in all.
The Tower Hotel with 119 bedrooms is part of the FBD Group which also owns the Temple Bar Hotel, Tower Waterford, Castleknock Hotel and Faithlegg Golf Resort.
Additional accommodation in Tallaght is also available in 50 suites owned by the Abberly Court. The Glashaus Hotel is also bringing further suites into use from April.
A few miles away, the Louis Fitzgerald hotel with 190 bedrooms opened near Joel's on the Naas Road last October. Another recent entry to the market was the Comfort Inn with 129 bedrooms at Kingwood.
The rapid growth in hotel facilities in Tallaght, with a population of more than 70,000, has been triggered by the continuing expansion of business activities in west and south Dublin.
The rapid expansion in the hotel sector has, not surprisingly, led to a softening of rates in the area with rooms selling for €70-€89 per night. Midweek specials are also available on the basis of two nights bed and breakfast and one dinner for €119 sharing.
Meanwhile, Weldon Mather, the Co Kildare-based consultant on the hotel industry, describes Tallaght with five hotels as "not only saturated but swamped".
Speaking generally about the Irish hotel industry, he said that with some hotels operating with a room occupancy rate of around 29 per cent and capital allowances running out, "more hotels are in distress than the public would perceive". He said that in some cases hotels were dependent on nightclubs and bar businesses to cover operating costs.
This softening of room rates is also being felt in the south inner city where D4 Hotel's rate of €80 per night in the old Jurys and Berkeley Court hotels is affecting hotels generally.
