Average room rates at Shelbourne Hotel on the rise

Average room rates at the five-star Shelbourne Hotel increased marginally between April and June, as the Dublin economy continued to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The average daily rate at the hotel increased 2.7 per cent to $363.90 (€356.43) during the second quarter of the year, according to the latest earnings from investment firm Kennedy Wilson, which owns the hotel. That compares to an average daily rate of $354.30 at the hotel between January and March.

While Kennedy Wilson does not refer to the Shelbourne by name in its earnings release, it is the only hotel the company owns in Ireland. The California-based property firm invested heavily in Ireland in the years after the financial crash. It now controls offices and apartments as well as the hotel, which it took control of in 2014. Most of its operations are focused on Dublin and the surrounding area. Overall, Ireland accounts for about 16 per cent of Kennedy Wilson’s estimated annual net operating income, it said.

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The hospitality industry has warned of “exceptional demand” for Dublin hotels this summer, as tourists return in force to the capital after a nearly three-year hiatus. As much as 80 per cent of hotel rooms in the city for June had been booked in advance by the end of May, according to industry group the Irish Hotels Federation. That is well up on the 65 per cent of rooms booked at the same point in 2019, it said.

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Meanwhile, Kennedy Wilson saw the average monthly rent per unit of its residential holdings slip to $2,448 from $2,566 three months earlier. The company controls 2,544 so-called market-rate units, which are mostly apartments.

The average rent per square foot of its nine office buildings in Ireland dropped to $42.50 during the three months to the end of June, down from $44.90 in the previous quarter.