The arrival of a big, new kid on the block in the form of the five-star Four Seasons Hotel at the RDS in Ballsbridge has generated a lot of interest in the industry though it is not due to open until next spring.
The Four Seasons manages 45 luxury hotels worldwide and this will rise to 60, including Dublin, within the next two years.
It expects to generate a significant amount of business from existing Four Seasons customers abroad.
"As a company, we have a very strong loyalty factor from our customers," says general manager John Brennan, who is currently operating from a pre-fab office on the site.
(So loyal are the customers that many of them buy the hotel group's custom-made beds, which some might say is taking loyalty too far).
The hotel will also aim to cater for corporate-related events, such as board meetings, planning meetings and strategy sessions. It will not, says Mr Brennan, be competing with the RDS for large-scale conferences but it expects to host "ancillary meetings" connected with conferences - such as meetings of directors and advisory committees.
The hotel will have 254 guest rooms and suites. It will include a health club with a swimming-pool, sauna and other facilities for the use of guests only. Its main ballroom can accommodate as many as 500 people and its "junior" ballroom 300.
Its not clear how much an Four Seasons room will cost per night - Mr - Mr Brennan says they haven't been finally worked out yet - but Four Seasons hotels are generally pitched at the top end of the market. Another kid on the same block is Bewley's Hotel in Thomas Prior House, the old Masonic school for orphan girls, which is beside Simmonscourt.
In line with the newish and increasingly popular trend of charging by the room, it has a tariff of £69 per room and £138 for a two-room apartment (the latter have their own kitchen). It has 220 rooms and 74 apartments, and a large underground car-park. A key part of its strategy according to manager Clio O'Gara, is that it will not bump up its prices for sports events or other special occasions. This is one reason, she says, for the fact that the hotel has been full for most of the five weekends since it has been open. She is already winning business from hotels which increase their prices by 50 per cent for special occasions.
And, no, she insists, she will not increase her prices for the millennium.
Its link with Bewley's Hotel at Newlands Cross has also generated business from people who have previously used that hotel, she says, and its O'Connell's restaurant is already being received favourably.
The hotel aims to get business from companies in the area and sees rugby internationals and RDS conferences as providing a healthy stream of guests. She even expects - the Four Seasons will be pleased to hear - that people working at conferences in her luxury rival will jump at the chance of a room in Bewleys for £69.
There's synergy - and confidence - for you.
