Travel demand and hotel investment continue to sizzle in Dublin, Ireland.
As Ireland's economy keeps growing, its capital city has been a hub of activity, both with tourists and hotel investors.
One first-quarter deal from February stands out: Deka Immobilien’s acquisition of the 272-room Ruby Molly in Dublin from ESR Europe for €86 million ($97 million), which represented a yield of 5%. According to Savills, the hotel transaction was the second-largest property deal across all real estate classes in Ireland in the first quarter, beaten only by a separate deal to acquire eight retail parks. The Ruby Molly opened in 2024 and is brand Ruby Hotels’ first hotel in Ireland.
IHG Hotels & Resorts acquired the Ruby Hotels brand in February for €110.5 million.
In Dublin, Deka also owns the 502-room Clayton Hotel Burlington Road; 252-room Gibson Hotel; 187-room Anantara The Marker at Grand Canal Quay; and the recently developed 151-room Premier Inn Dublin City Centre The Liberties.
Weldon Mather, director of hotels, tourism and leisure at Crowe, said prime assets such as the Ruby acquisition, a new fit-for-purpose hotel, should continue to attract institutional investors searching for yield.
“It is the first core and long-leased, long-income Dublin hotel sale since late 2022,” he said.
It's likely that Dublin will continue to be an active hotel investment market for the near term, Mather said. He added there always are challenges on trading performance, notably on room rates due to a “substantial amount of new bed stock set to open in Dublin in 2025, but the Irish hotels sector was active from a deals perspective in 2024, and transactional activity will be strong again in 2025.”
Total hotel transaction volume in Dublin reached €890 million in 2024, with a further €30 million of hotel development site sales and €60 million of hostel transactions also closing, Mather said. It was the busiest year for the sector in Ireland since 2006.
In January, Naas, Ireland-based FBD Hotels & Resorts — a division of farmer-owned investment company Farmer Business Developments PLC — acquired the 202-room Grand Hotel Malahide, for €55 million.
Another domino that could fall and shake up Dublin's hotel transaction landscape — along with all of Ireland — involves Ireland’s largest hotel firm, Dalata Hotel Group.
Founded in 2007, Dalata operates a portfolio of 55 hotels, including about 30 in Ireland and 20 in Dublin. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Dalata has a current market capitalization of £845.94 million ($1.09 billion). In March, the company said it is looking at different ways of adding value and it is open for acquisition offers, but no guide price was specified.
For the rest of 2025, CBRE anticipates hotel transaction volumes in Dublin to approach €800 million in 2025, following visibility on several pending deals, Mather said.
“The country's hotel market continues to monitor the debate around the current passenger cap at Dublin Airport, and the lifting of the cap is key to the sector,” Mather said. “Yields for prime leased hotels are now stable, in line with the wider real estate market, where it is clear that asset pricing has troughed. However, CBRE expects prime leased hotel yields to compress during 2025 and stabilize at under 5%.”
So far, fewer international travelers aren't hurting Dublin's hotel market, Mather said. There's been a noticeable dip in U.S. visitors to Ireland as the value of the dollar decreases.
“It is difficult to project how midweek business will stabilize; that is, corporate versus leisure, but looking at [Ireland’s Central Statistics Office] numbers for inbound tourists, which are down year on year, this indicates less inbound travelers,” Mather said. “However, the actual first-quarter [CoStar] numbers and other data is relatively flat year on year in Dublin and down 5% to 8% in regional cities.”
Growing hotel supply
Dublin is also a hotbed of hotel development projects. A total of 612 new hotel rooms were opened in Dublin in 2024, growing existing supply to nearly 27,500, and an additional 1,500 rooms are due to be delivered in 2025, Mather said.
“This will have implications for room rates in the year ahead,” he said.
According to CoStar, existing hotels in central Dublin have 16,075 rooms in operation with another 3,367 in the development pipeline. While full-year hotel occupancy in central Dublin increased in 2024 by 0.7% to 80.8%, average daily rate fell 3.7% to €196.36 and revenue per available room fell 2.9% to €158.69.
It's likely that added hotel room supply in Dublin will put pressure on ADR throughout 2025.
In the first quarter of 2025, compared with the same period in 2024, Dublin's hotel occupancy increased 3.9% to 70.3%. RevPAR rose by 3.5% to €112.32, but ADR fell 0.4% to €159.71.
The 137-room Wren Urban Nest, which opened in 2021, will be joined by an 111-room economy hotel opening in June 2026 on the same street, St. Andrew’s Lane.
Two additional economy hotels undergoing renovation and due to reopen in 2026 are the 100-room Ripley Court Hotel owned by Dublin-based Athlavale Ltd., and the 64-room Paramount Hotel owned by Paramount Hotels Limited.
Whitbread PLC has submitted plans to redevelop a site at Parkgate Street with development partners Greenleaf Group and Warren Private for a new-build, 155-room Premier Inn in the former Westbrook Motors. That proposal would be the second time the three partners have collaborated in Dublin, following the 97-room Premier Inn Dublin City Center Temple Bar on Lower Stephen’s Street that opened last year. There's also a third Premier Inn development deal in the works between the partners.
Higher up the hotel segment, The Hoxton Dublin is finishing a renovation for later this year at the former Central Hotel. Owned by Deutsche Finance International and BCP Capital, the hotel will be the first in Ireland affiliated with the Hoxton brand owned by Ennismore, a joint venture with Accor. Its renovation will expand its room count to 129.