EasyHotel, the London-based hotel chain established by EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou, has opened its first hotel in Ireland near Dublin city centre.
The 160-room hotel is located in Smithfield, close to attractions such as the Guinness Storehouse, Temple Bar and Dublin Castle and within walking distance of Heuston train station and the Smithfield Luas stop.
EasyHotel, which trades on its affordable and low-carbon credentials, said the hotel had been designed to maximise energy efficiency and limit its carbon footprint.
The Smithfield location brings the number of EasyHotel hotels in Europe to 44 across 11 countries. The company aims to add hotels in four more countries over the next 15 months and hopes to operate 100 hotels internationally by 2026.
“Our expansion strategy is targeting prime European capital cities for new easyHotels, and 2022 has seen us make good progress against this," said Karim Malik, CEO of EasyHotel.
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"We’re focused on delivering our plan to reach 100 hotels by 2026, having recently opened a new hotel in Madrid, with new hotels scheduled to open in 2023 in Paris and Zurich."
“It’s fantastic to be opening our first hotel in Ireland and the dynamic city of Dublin," Malik added. "It’s a brilliant city which is gaining more and more traction with both tourists and business travellers, and we are looking forward to giving people affordable ways to experience it.
"I’m proud of our ability to offer people low-carbon stays which are friendlier towards the environment. Our compact hotel designs mean we use 15-20% less carbon than the market average for each stay."
The group has a flexible strategy for expansion, either owning, leasing or franchising hotels, in addition to constructing new hotels, converting existing hotels and making acquisitions.
The Madrid hotels are part of its second franchisee partnership with Continuum Hospitality Group, and it recently acquired eight franchised hotels in the Benelux region, including three in Amsterdam, two in The Hague, and one each in Rotterdam, Maastricht, and Brussels.
In the UK, EasyHotel has locations in Shoreditch, Heathrow, Paddington, Victoria, South Kensington, Croydon, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Ipswich, Milton, Keynes Cardiff, Oxford, Luton, Reading, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Belfast.
It has further hotels in Europe in berlin, Frankfurt, Charles de Gaulle (Paris), Nice, Barcelona, Malaga, Madrid, Zurich City Centre, Zurich West, Zurich Central Station, Basel, Lisbon, Sofia, Budapest, and now Dublin
Of the 44 hotels, 19 are franchised (c. 2,000 rooms), and 25 are owned or leased (c. 2000 rooms).
Accounts show EasyHotel reported comprehensive income of £440,000 in 2021 after racking up losses of £9.7m the previous year. The company invested more than £27.3m in development over the two-year period despite the continuing impact of Covid-19.
The company said it had been trading at or above 2019 levels since August 2021 and had resumed being cash generative while accelerating European expansion plans.
Photo: EasyHotel in Smithfield, Dublin 7. (Pic: EasyHotel)
