Pretax losses at the operator of the five-star Shelbourne hotel on Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green last year declined by 43 per cent to €4.88 million as the hotel began to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Accounts show that KW Shelbourne Ops Ltd last year reduced its losses as revenues increased by 20 per cent from €12.2 million to €14.6 million.
The Shelbourne firm’s 2021 revenues still remain some way off the hotel’s pre-pandemic revenues of €42 million in 2019.
The hotel industry across the country was able to open from early June last year after Covid-19 had shut down the sector for the first five months of the year.
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A directors’ note with the accounts said that since year-end “domestic trade has been robust and the return of international guests has commenced”.
The note said the company was confident it “will return to a strong trading position as international guests return to pre-pandemic levels and functions can return to full attendance”.
During 2021, both fixed and variable costs were reduced across all hotel operating line items, the accounts said.
The pretax loss last year takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €4.78 million
Last year, because of the impact of Covid, the Shelbourne’s operator paid zero on short-term leases to another KW firm which owns the hotel. It paid out €3.6 million in 2019 on short-term leases.
KW Shelbourne Ops recorded operating losses of €4.48 million last year and interest charges of €400,460 resulted in the pretax loss of €4.88 million.
In 2014, US real estate specialists Kennedy Wilson assumed control of the hotel when it paid €110 million for the debts attached to the property.
