Jurys Doyle's Niall Geoghegan is determined to put the hotel chain in the top league and, he tells Ella Shanahan, if it coincides with his soccer interests so much the better.
"My ambition is to develop a premiership - we have Birmingham with Birmingham City; Islington (London) with Arsenal; Chelsea - when it opens - with Chelsea; Manchester, with United and City; Newcastle with Newcastle United. There are a lot of headline cities that would attract us," says Mr Niall Geoghegan, marketing and sales director of the Jurys Doyle hotels.
No marks, though, for guessing he's a soccer fan - he supports Man United - but the premiership he's talking about is Jurys Inns, of which there are five already in operation in Britain - in Islington, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham and Croydon, with four more to open before 2004: Chelsea, Leeds, Newcastle and Glasgow. There are also three hotels - as distinct from Inns - in London. "We have a very vibrant business in the UK. It's one we're extremely excited about. It's been a great story in the last few years, since we bought Kensington in 1993," he says.
The group recently announced a €90 million expansion in Britain and he points out that there are 26 cities in Britain with populations over 100,000, any of which would be suitable locations for Jurys Inns, "so you can see how big the scale of opportunity is in the medium-term".
In the United States, there are three hotels in Washington DC, which have traded well with visitors from the corporate and political sectors as well some leisure business. Boston - which has the highest average rate of spend per room in the US - will have a Jurys opening in late 2003.
Indeed, Jurys Doyle's operations outside Ireland are almost as big as the Irish arm. The group has 32 hotels - "32 and growing", a mix of the Inns, four-star and five-star hotels, with a bedroom stock of 6,145 rooms and employing more than 4,000 people.
For the second year in a row, the Jurys Doyle group was nominated winner of the Best Hotel Group in the UK by the travel trade.
"The Inns in particular have been hugely successful and we have proven the market for them in Ireland. They gave us the catalyst to move into the UK market. We have felt they have succeeded very well. Our opportunity is to grow that brand, which means we have to reach a certain critical mass within a three-year period," he says.
"The Inns target the budget-plus market. They frequently get confused with budget brands, but they are not. They have better facilities. In many respects, the product quality competes against four-star products but the service level is a three-star service level. Significantly, we appeal not just to the leisure market but very much to the corporate traveller as well. It's the success in the corporate market that has delivered the very high occupancy for the Inns.
"Our hotels are very different. We recently reviewed our strategy going forward and we want our hotels to be positioned in the four-star marketplace or at the very least, the upper three-star for certain properties."
While clocking up substantial growth, he says: "We have probably under-invested in some of our core assets in the Irish marketplace and that is going to change significantly around the four-start marketplace." That investment will include the redevelopment and expansion of the Cork Jurys "to regain the position it used to have".
Other three-stars whose future are being reviewed - and this could include being sold - include the Green Isle, Skylon, Montrose and Tara in Dublin and Jurys Waterford. Chief executive of Jurys Doyle, Mr Pat McCann said at the weekend that three-star hotels in urban areas will not survive in the long-term; indeed, they contributed just 5 per cent to profits in the group's last half-year results, compared with a 34 per cent contribution from the Inns.
But, Mr Geoghegan says: "Nothing is imminent. In the longer term, everything is for sale. We will make sure there is a rolling programme across the four-stars. There is really a bit of tidying up in the Irish marketplace to be done."
Some €10 million has been spent on upgrading the five-star Westbury and Berkeley Court in Dublin and the final phase, on suites in the Berkeley Court, will be completed in six months. "We regained the Leading Hotels of the World badge for the Berkeley;" he comments.'
In Dublin, where the group has 2,200 rooms in three-, four- and five-star categories, he says the multi-brand strategy worked well post- September 11th.
"There was clear evidence of trading down from five-star to four-star because corporate travel budgets were scrutinised to a much greater extent internationally and travel policies were adhered to to a greater extent We were able to make the best of a bad situation. When times are good, the four- and five-stars perform much better."
The Jurys Doyle group has just introduced its Priority Guest scheme, a sort of frequent flyer incentive, where guests are given points for staying in their hotels, which can be used for room stays or other concessions..
Mr Geoghegan says 2002 is a more difficult year for the Irish tourist industry than last year, which saw a decline in visitor numbers for the first time in many years, not just of tourists but of corporate visitors as well. "What we found was that there were two key markets affected: the corporate travel market and the US market. I would say this year there is a kind of gradual upturn on the corporate side but, as it stands, I think this year will be a recovery year for the US but it will not reach the levels of last year."
The hotel business has seen a lot of expansion over the last five or six years on the back of very successful tourism promotions. "We're probably at a bit of a plateau in some respects and we've got to move onto new level. There are challenges for all of us, not least Tourism Ireland. We have a great product in this country now and when we get through this short-term difficulty, I see the future being very bright."
But he is concerned that the Irish tourist industry does not have sufficient funding to diversify its marketing drive.
"I think Tourism Ireland have identified a number of countries that have good possibilities for Ireland but the reality is that there is not enough market budget to really go after these countries," he says. And he is concerned also about Aer Lingus's current difficulties. "It's in everybody's interests, and most certainly the country's interests, that there is a strong, vibrant national airline."
And he bemoans the lack of a conference centre in Dublin.
"There is a conference centre in every key European city. We see the benefits it brings in the UK to Belfast and Birmingham and Edinburgh and Glasgow. It's sad that Dublin is still lacking, given that it has so much else to offer as a city."
Mr Geoghegan does not have a hotel background. A Dubliner, he did a Bachelor of Commerce at UCD before becoming an account executive with Irish International and later worked as commercial manager of Thorn EMI, as a senior brand manager with Guinness Ireland and as marketing manager of Green Isle Foods. He joined Jurys in 1993 and was co-opted to the board in 1996.
"In some respects it was very different, but marketing is marketing at the end of the day. You have this product and potential clients and it's making them fit in an effective way across industries, in my point of view," he says. But he makes it work - this year he was voted Marketeer of the Year by the Marketing Institute.
Ask Mr Geoghegan to describe a typical working day or week and he finds it difficult. Since he is out of the country at least once most weeks, family holidays are spent in Connemara. His wife Margaret is a solicitor and they have four children, Daisy (9), Beth (6) Georgia (4) and Willowen, who is one.
And his favourite hotels? "The Benjamin in New York. Really it was an object lesson in how to look after corporate guests, right down to having pre-printed business cards with your name on them when you arrive.
"In family terms, I have always enjoyed Renvyle House Hotel in Connemara for the welcoming atmosphere."
