Hotel 7, billed as the first boutique hotel in the Dublin 1 area, has been officially opened. The hotel has  51 bedrooms, cocktail bar and a restaurant and is located at Gardiner Row.

Hotel 7 commenced trading in June 2018 and is managed by Dalata Hotel Group. The hotel is a joint venture between Dalata and Donnie Cassidy.

The building was built circa 1770 and was the home of accounting firm Bastow Charleton in the 1950s. The structure suffered fire damage in 1978. The hotel celebrates its period features coupling unique artisan lighting, bespoke furnishings and a collection of contemporary Irish art.

A new report from Cushman & Wakefield notes that construction completed in 15 hotels during the first nine months of 2018. Notably, 87% of the rooms delivered were in Dublin across both new builds and extensions.

Hotel openings this year have included the 145-bedroom Iveagh Gardens Hotel on Harcourt Street, the 140-bedroom Maldron Hotel on Kevin Street, and the Clayton Hotel Charlemont, both Dalata project.

In Association with

The report points out that a drying up of distressed asset sales  that characterised the market in the years 2014-2016. Transactions to date this year have been mostly small-sized assets, with no big-ticket, €50m+ hotels for sale.

Just one hotel sale so far this year was over €20m in value, when the Hilton Dublin Airport sold for €22.5m to Canada’s Westmont Group. UK hotel investor Propiteer purchased the recently refurbished Ibis Hotel for more than €14m. These two Dublin hotels were the only two to sell in the capital. Of the remaining transactions, four hotels were in the West of Ireland, and two in the South-East.

Head of trading assets Kirsty Rothwell said: “Dublin city is now seeing a steady pipeline of bedrooms coming on stream, which is encouraging to see. As the gateway to the rest of Ireland, it is vital to the wider hotel market that Dublin remains competitive and attractive to tourists.”

Sounding a warning note, the property company worried about the impact of the new higher VAT rate of 13.5% in the Budget, which hoteliers will now be factoring into their pricing strategies, and facing some head-scratching over the potential decline in sterling from Brexit when combined with the VAT hike. 

In the past year Ireland’s flow of UK tourists declined, with an increased reliance on European and North American overseas visitors.

Photo: Dalata CEO Pat McCann (right) and Donnie Cassody