Hotel & Restaurant Sector

Hotels report occupancy rates of between 23-26% for summer months

RTE Business – 09.07.2020

Hoteliers here are reporting occupancy rates of between 23 and 26% for the summer months, according to figures from the Irish Hotels' Federation. This is based on confirmed bookings and compares to an average 90% occupancy over the summer months last year. The IHF said that occupancy for September, traditionally a popular time for US visitors, currently stands at 22%. Elaina Fitzgerald Kane, the IHF president, said the substantial drop in occupancy levels highlighted the unprecedented challenges facing the sector and the requirement for immediate interventions to support tourism businesses.

Boxty House restaurant in Temple Bar closes indefinitely after 32 years

The Irish Times - 20.07.2020

The business was heavily reliant on overseas tourist trade, accounting for 90 per cent of its trade in the summer months. Owner Pádraig Óg Gallagher held back when restaurants were permitted to reopen on June 29th, and finally lifted the shutters last Thursday, in the hope that Temple Bar’s many pubs would be back in business on Monday. But with pubs now closed indefinitely, and his restaurant operating out of a largely shuttered and deserted area of the city centre, he has had to rethink. The Boxty House had offered a takeaway service during the Covid-19 crisis but that will not continue. “The takeaway in the city centre didn’t really work for us. The city centre is dead, completely dead.”