Readying the rooms for American tourist market

"It was certainly the most fraught 48 hours of my hotel life," says Mark Nolan, managing director of Dromoland Castle, recalling the visit of US president George Bush to his hotel in June 2004.

Visibly more relaxed now as he enjoys the hotel winning the AA Irish Hotel of the Year, the Dubliner explains: "It was a last-minute decision that the president would stay here and I was more or less told to empty my hotel and we had to inconvenience people that had already booked and try to relocate them elsewhere."

He adds: "It was the strangest feeling of being a general manager and not being able to walk freely through my hotel because it was zoned off for security reasons."

Nolan says that the presidential visit went off without a hitch. Asked if it was worth it, the 45-year-old father of four hesitates: "It is hard. I suppose it was, it will be, it was a good thing to do, it was a good exercise."

"We got huge exposure. It can't have done us any harm, I assume it was instrumental in holding onto our US business."

The disruption of the Bush visit occurred during a very successful year. Not only did the standards achieved secure Dromoland's AA award, but returns to the Companies Office for 2004 show that the five-star hotel had an operating profit of €1.54 million - an increase of 37 per cent on its 2003 profit.

The accounts also show that the operating profit of last year contributed to retained profits of €8.965 million. Nolan says the hotel is set to make a profit of €1.2 million this year with occupancy rates at 70 per cent.

The hotel's strong performance in recent years doesn't diminish Nolan's strongly held views on the wider issues affecting tourism along the western seaboard.

He says the Government should build the National Conference Centre in the west of Ireland in an effort to address the growing imbalance between east and west coast tourism.

"It would be an ideal product for the west. I think that is what it really needs. I think the Government needs to see the development of a particular product that we can generate extra business from, rather than the two sectors tugging at the same business."

Between April and September, 80-85 per cent of the hotel's guests are American, making the hotel vulnerable to any abrupt change to the "open skies" agreement which would probably signal the end of the controversial Shannon stopover.

Nolan says it would be a major concern if "open skies" was brought in without any counterbalancing package by Government involving a very clear marketing strategy for the western seaboard.

He adds: "If 'open skies' is in the context of additional routes being opened to the United States, I believe that we may benefit in the long term."

Nolan says that air access in the west is a concern and that he is worried about unpublished figures from Shannon showing US traffic was down 1 per cent in September in spite of the record year being enjoyed by the airport.

Nolan is well-positioned to comment on the trends in Irish tourism as he has led the Dromoland operation since 1989 and argues that the western seaboard should be developed as a separate product for the North American market.

He says: "I think even the tourism bodies actively encourage you to travel to Dublin - that has to be addressed. There has to be a more proactive approach to marketing Shannon and the western seaboard as a complete destination right from Donegal down to Kerry."

In its early years in the 1960s, Dromoland's guests were almost exclusively American, though the overall figure is now 55 per cent with Irish guests accounting for 30 per cent of its customer base.

The then rundown castle was purchased by US citizen Bernard McDonagh from the O'Brien clan for £66,000 in 1963. In 1987 the hotel was sold to its present owners, Ashford Hotels Ltd, for just under £3 million.

Nolan says that a recent valuation priced the hotel at €40 million - good news for Nolan, who has a share of 2 per cent in the business, and Sir Anthony O'Reilly who, according to Nolan, has a share of just under 25 per cent.

The remainder of the shareholders are US-based and Nolan says: "They are a super group of investors and have never baulked at any challenge in terms of investment in the product. The dividend they take is nominal and they are very proud of the hotel."

Room rates at the hotel range from €388 per night to €1,200 for the presidential suite, though discounts are available.

The hotel's strong performance in recent years has encouraged the board to sanction the use of €5 million on upgrading golf facilities, including a new golf academy at the hotel and €2 million on a new spa.

"We try all the time to improve the product. Staff numbers at the hotel are currently at 203, ensuring that there is a 1.1 ratio to guests. That is the expectation from guests. The AA award is for the staff. I've a great dedicated team that do strive for excellence and there is a very clear attempt at all times to do something better the next time."