‘If you look out in September or October, there’ll be a lot more value’: Cork hotel prices to remain high for summer

THE “perfect storm” of skyrocketing hotel room prices in Cork may not pass until September.

That is according to Cork’s Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) chair, who said with the rising costs of business, it is hard to say what cost a moderately priced hotel room will be in future.

Maldron Hotel in Shandon general manager Joe Kennedy, said that hotels in Cork are just now getting their heads around demand this summer, which sprang back much quicker than expected.

“We were really only able to start rebuilding our businesses from the start of February, after two years of lockdown, and demand came back much faster than the industry expected it,” he said.

“It took us a couple of months to catch up and to get our heads around it,” he said.

Anyone trying to book a last-minute staycation in Ireland this summer will be aware of skyrocketing rates for rooms in cities and popular tourist destinations.

Mr Kennedy said that these inflated prices are due to a “perfect storm of demand” which he expects will have blown over by September.

DEMAND

“There’s a pent up demand for holidaying after the pandemic, and a build-up of bookings cancelled over the last couple of years, that have to come back into the marketplace,” he said.

“Bookings of bus tours, international travellers, holiday plans that were kicked to touch every year during the pandemic. When you see remaining rooms at a certain price at the moment, that’s because 50% of bed stock is still committed on 2020 or even 2019 prices,” he added.

Mr Kennedy said there is not likely to be any change from high demand until the end of August.

Demand for rooms in Cork throughout the summer is so high that summer advertising campaigns planned by Visit Cork, the tourism body for the Cork region, have been postponed until the autumn.

Mr Kennedy advised those looking for value to hold out a few more months, when prices should moderate.

“As we move into the autumn time, the industry expects demand to be moderate again. If you look out in September or October, there’ll be a lot more value around the place,” he said.

However, with rapidly rising costs business, Mr Kennedy says it is still difficult to predict what a moderate hotel room price will be in future.

“Costs are gone up everywhere, but particularly for running a hotel, you have a 20% increase on your food and beverage supplies, the linen that we put on the beds has gone up by 30%, insurance has gone up by 20%, and energy increases are gone up by 50 to 70%,” he said.

He added that issues with recruitment and retention of staff has meant hoteliers are also investing more in payroll to hold on to their people.

“There’s a lot going on in the metrics of running a business at the moment.

“When all the built up business is gone through, then we’ll be back to more moderate pricing — that’s a term that’s saying prices are not going to skyrocket or go to the floor — but what moderate means at the moment, I don’t know,” he added.