Two Ibis hotels, in Cork and Galway, look set to close with the loss of 60 jobs.

It is thought the two hotels, operated by French hotel group Accor under the Ibis brand, will be redeveloped as apartments.

Last night, Accor said in a statement that it had advised staff at the Ibis hotels in Cork and Galway "that it would be starting a period of consultation" over the properties' future.

"The consultation period will start on Monday July 23rd and, at this stage, it would be inappropriate to comment in more detail."

Ibis Galway is located on the Headford Road, while the Cork hotel is at the Lee Tunnel roundabout Tunnel where the N25 and N8 intersect.

A third Ibis hotel in Dublin is unaffected by the review. The three properties opened in 1998, offering a fixed-price budget service.

The Ibis hotels in Ireland are operated by Accor Ireland Hotels Limited which is ultimately controlled by London-based Accor UK Economy Hotels.

Accor Ireland moved into the black in 2005, with a profit after tax of €103,283 on a turnover of €6.6 million. The company had retained losses of €5.9 million. In 2004, the three hotels made a loss of €519,771.

In the directors' report filed at the Companies Office as part of its 2005 accounts, the company said it had acquired 25-year leases on the Ibis hotels in Dublin, Cork and Galway in July 1997.

The report says that "following extensive negotiations in order to improve the conditions of the hotel leases, without satisfactory results", it decided to take up a purchase option on the Dublin property.

Last week, Andras House, run by Lord Diljit Rana announced it was investing £50 million (€74 million) to build five Ibis hotels in the North.

On Tuesday, Accor announced results for the half year to the end of June 2007. It had revenues of €2.9 billion from its 3,800 hotels worldwide, an increase of 5.2 per cent from the previous year on a constant currency basis.