HOTEL MARKET:JURYS DOYLE Hotel group - having reduced its hotel chain from 36 to 11 in the past three years - is now on a spending spree.
All 11 hotels in the group are undergoing refurbishment in a programme costing over €115 million.
The group consists of three hotels in Ireland - the Westbury, Jurys Cork, and the Croke Park Hotel that is managed on behalf of the GAA - and four hotels each in the UK and the US.
Following the appointment last July of Bill Walshe (formerly of the upscale Jumeireh Hotel Group) as chief executive of the group, the much needed upgrading of the properties has begun.
The flagship Westbury, the only five-star hotel in the group, has been transformed over the past six months. All the bedrooms have been upgraded with new furniture, bedlinens by Frette and upscale Acqua di Parma toiletries.
The restaurant, now renamed Wilde, has been transformed both in style and cuisine with the help of Michelin-star chef/consultant John Wood, formerly executive chef of the luxury Burj al Arab hotel in Dubai. The lobby, bar and conference areas have all had a complete makeover. The final touches to be undertaken in the next few months will be the entrance on Harry Street, which will be moved and the Sandbank Restaurant, which will be enlarged.
The Croke Park Hotel has had a new outdoor area installed with integrated canopies and heating system, and in Cork the recently built hotel, which is owned by Owen O'Callaghan and leased by the group, will have lighting upgraded.
In London work has begun on the Clifton Ford Hotel in Welbeck Street and will be completed over the next few months. Some of the smaller rooms have been removed and integrated to create more spacious suites.
The much loved Jurys Kensington will close in July for six months and the property transformed. An upscale bar is planned to replace the popular Kavanaghs Pub.
Jurys Great Russell Street, one of the most architecturally significant properties in the portfolio, will have a sympathetic makeover. Designed by Edwin Lutyens, its swimming pool will be reinstated along with a spa. The refurbishment begins in August and the hotel will remain open.
The Jurys Bristol hotel has one of the best locations in Bristol and it is expected that, following extensive refurbishment, it will be the rate leader. Its refurbishment is almost complete and the conference and banqueting area already finished.
In the US, Jurys Boston is holding its position as the city's number one hotel on Tripadvisor, the internet hotel review site. Though only open four years it is having a "soft" makeover and the bar and restaurant refreshed.
Washington is home to the other three Jurys Doyle hotels. The Courtyard refurbishment is complete and the hotel trading well.
The Normandy, the small hotel in the embassy residential area, will be transformed into a luxury boutique hotel.
The flagship Jurys Washington, with 300 rooms at Dupont Circle, is scheduled to have a major transformation to put it firmly on the lucrative Washington circuit, where hotel occupancy is the highest in the US.
At present the corporate image of Jurys Doyle Hotels is under review as it is now essentially a Dublin-based international hotel group.
Bill Walshe sees the hotels as being "imbued with Irishness", rather than being an Irish hotel group. "We are repositioning as a luxury hotel brand dedicated to the creation of a portfolio of truly individual luxury hotel experiences. We will relaunch a new brand direction and subsequent image campaign later this year."
The Jurys Doyle Hotel group recently joined the Global Hotel Alliance as its 10th member. The GHA members include Kempinski, Dusit, Omni and Pan Pacific hotel groups, all independently owned.
