Dalata returns to profit with four UK hotel openings planned in 2024
Dalata Hotel Group has returned to profit and remains "cautiously optimistic" for 2023 after its revenue exceeded €500m (£440m) for the first time in 2022.
Ireland's largest hotel operator reported a pre-tax profit of €109.7m (£96.7m) in its full-year 2022 results, up from a pre-tax loss of €11.4m (£10m) in 2021.
Dalata opened six new hotels in 2022, including its first in continental Europe, the Clayton Hotel Dusseldorf.
Four new hotels, totalling 834 rooms, are currently under construction in the UK and set to open in London in Q1 of 2024 and Brighton, Liverpool, and Manchester in summer next year.
Since the year end, Dalata has completed its £44.3m purchase of what is expected to reopen as the 192-bedroom Maldron Hotel Finsbury Park in London this summer.
Dalata already operates 11 Clayton hotels and five Maldron hotels in the UK, which generated total UK revenue of £130.3m in 2022, up 50% on 2019 levels.
The group operates 50 hotels across its portfolio in the UK, Ireland, and Germany.
Dalata reported revenue of €515.7m (£454.1m) from its hotel operations for last year, up 20% on 2019.
Group revenue per available room (revpar) reached €106.4m (£93m) in 2022, up 114% on 2019 levels.
The boost in business was due to strong leisure demand following the full re-opening of hotels at the end of January 2022 and the gradual recovery of corporate business throughout the year, the group said.
It predicted that like-for-like revpar for January/February 2023 is expected to be 17% ahead of 2019 levels in Dublin, 54% in regional Ireland and 27% in the UK.
Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) increased by 13% to €183.4m (£161.51m) in 2022.
Dalata warned that difficult economic conditions could lead to a slowdown in domestic leisure demand, but said it was "not seeing any such indicators in our trade levels to date".
Dermot Crowley, chief executive of Dalata Hotel Group, said: "We remain confident in our ability to outperform with our modern hotel portfolio, our focus on sustainability, our decentralised operating model and our track record of providing a superior guest experience."
The board plans to re-introduce a dividend following its first half of 2023 results.
