Since the start of 2021, three hotels have been given planning permission to build on the north side of Dublin city. All three are in the area around Capel Street and will join the many other hotels being constructed at present in Dublin city.
The most recent is the 54-bed property on Meetinghouse Lane, near Capel Street. Dublin City Council has given permission to Development Ocht to go ahead, due to the unsuitability of the site for residential housing. The nine-storey plan was reduced by one floor and it will have a rooftop bar.
Cathedral Leisure, part of Northern Irish Beannchor Group, has obtained planning for a 98-bed Bullitt Hotel on the former Boland’s bakery site near Capel Street. The first Bullitt Hotel opened in Belfast in 2016 and is a stylish and cleverly designed hotel to maximise space. Beannchor also own the five-star Merchant Hotel in Belfast.
The other planning permission is for Irish hotelier Brian McGettigan, trading as Vision Wave. Mr. McGettigan is one of the family that owns the Bonnington Hotel and The Address hotels in Dublin and Cork. The site of the 94-bedroom hotel will be on the corner of Capel and Parnell Streets.
Planning for more than 100 hotels for Dublin
In recent years there was planning permissions in process for nearly 100 hotels and guest accommodation in Dublin city. Many of these hotels are now in darkness, derelict sites or half-built construction deserts. Some building works have resumed but where will they get the guests? Due to the pandemic, the bottom has fallen out of the tourism market.
The development of the accommodation sector in Dublin is and was being driven by large international hotel groups. Names that you will see around the city are Hampton by Hilton, at the site of the old River House on Chancery Street. A Point Hotels right next door to Jurys Inn on Parnell Street.
Staycity and its yellow livery is popping up all over the city with aparthotels. Motel One the German owned budget hotel group has a massive development on the corner of Liffey Street and Middle Abbey Street.
Budget brands for the city
The Easyhotels site on Benburb Street is quiet and the Premier Inn on South Great Georges Street looks almost ready to open, but to whom? There will be two further Premier Inns on Gloucester Street, and Castleforbes Business Park in Dublin 1. The Hendrick Hotel near Smithfield is a sad sight facing the back of Bargaintown.
Also in Dublin 1 the Clery Hotel at the site of the famous department story is side by side with the Moxy Hotel, over 300 rooms in one street. The former language school building opposite them on tiny Sackville Place may also apply for hotel planning permission.
It is hard to say when numbers will return with various estimates from 2022 to 2024. Much of the return will depend on air uplift into Ireland and routes returning to 2019 levels. In 2019 Dublin had more than six million visitors, two-thirds of the 9.5 visitors to Ireland that year, the highest ever number.
In the meantime, Dublin is suffering more than the rest of the country. People taking holidays elsewhere in the country will support rural numbers. The backbone of Dublin’s business, corporates, concerts, conventions and conferences are yet to indicate when it will be safe to return.