{"id":372585,"date":"2026-03-30T07:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T07:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/372585\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T07:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T07:14:11","slug":"theres-no-money-in-food-we-had-to-diversify-into-bedrooms-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/372585\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018There\u2019s no money in food. We had to diversify into bedrooms\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The distinctive smell of newly laid carpet tickles your nostrils and is the first hint of the recent \u20ac5.5 million investment at the family-owned Fernhill House Hotel & Gardens<\/a>, located a short stroll from the bustling town of Clonakilty in west Cork. <\/p>\n

The investment meant the country house hotel, owned by the O\u2019Neill family for 80 years, added 16 modern bedrooms <\/a>at the property, bringing the total to 43. <\/p>\n

The hotel has also added a bridal suite, a styling lounge for brides to use before they head outside to a new event space built among the 13 acres of garden (called the Fernery) to host wedding ceremonies. Solar panels have also been installed to heat its water and reduce its energy bills. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere wouldn\u2019t be too many hotels outside of the big touristy spots <\/a>doing that level of investment,\u201d says Michael O\u2019Neill jnr, who along with his brothers Neil and Gear\u00f3id, is the fourth generation of the family to run the business. <\/p>\n

The new rooms were added to diversify its income stream away from the now skinny margins attached to food and beverage. <\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 75 per cent of our business was food and we had to diversify. There\u2019s no money in food. We\u2019ve dragged it now into the 60s. Drink sales have fallen off a cliff, they are down over 20 per cent per head since Covid, there\u2019s been a real culture shift and there\u2019s no margin in food. So we had to diversify into bedrooms to strengthen the business,\u201d says Michael O\u2019Neill jnr.<\/p>\n

Naturally, he is looking forward to the VAT rate for food services being reduced to 9 per cent in July, a measure announced in last October\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it will be good to see that come in. Margins for food have just gotten thinner and thinner over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Fernery event space, which hosts wedding ceremonies. Photograph: Andy Gibson. <\/p>\n

Weddings generate a lot of income for Fernhill, which hosts more than 100 a year and the expansion and upgrade of facilities appears to be having the desired effect. <\/p>\n

According to Michael, wedding bookings for 2027 are up 40 per cent from where they would expect them to be and are \u201cthree times ahead so far\u201d for 2028. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis time last year, we only had nine sold, whereas now we\u2019re at about 30 for 2028. It\u2019s a nice business in that we know that the next couple of years are fine whereas with tourism you wouldn\u2019t know, with oil prices and the war [and how it will affect customer sentiment].\u201d<\/p>\n

Weddings are not without their challenges, mind you. About 50 employees are required to staff them and the size of wedding parties is reducing despite the hotel increasing its minimum number policy on certain dates. <\/p>\n

The original Georgian mansion on site was acquired by his great-grandfather (also Michael, who was a local auctioneer and had a butcher\u2019s shop in the area) in 1946 and the hospitality operation there began with a modest bed and breakfast offering.<\/p>\n

\"\"Are Government’s fuel measures betting on a quick resolution to the conflict in Iran?<\/p>\n

This later expanded into a hotel business and it has expanded at various junctures since then to its current size. Fernhill also has a bar, restaurant and ballroom, and it\u2019s own branded gin, sourced from a Cork distillery.<\/p>\n

Sustainability is part of its ethos and they have planted 3,000 trees in recent years and 2,000 daffodils and spring flowers. Chelsea Flower Show gold medal winner Mary Reynolds redesigned the gardens in 2017. \u201cThe gardens are our USP really,\u201d says O\u2019Neill. <\/p>\n

While still the big shareholders, his parents (Michael and Teresa) handed over the running of the business to their sons while still living on site and interacting with customers. <\/p>\n

\"MichaelMichael O’Neill jnr with his father, also Michael, at Fernhill House Hotel & Gardens in Clonakilty. Photograph: Andy Gibson. <\/p>\n

Some 85 per cent of its custom is from the domestic market, with just 3 per cent from US visitors, typically travellers heading off the beaten track. <\/p>\n

Room rates range from \u20ac165 a night midweek for multinight stays, rising to \u20ac269 on weekends. It charges an extra \u20ac100 per night for a suite. <\/p>\n

The price per head for a wedding starts at \u20ac95, rising to above \u20ac160 for \u201call the bells and whistles\u201d. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill says its occupancy rate tops 80 per cent in the busy summer period, falling to about 50 per cent in the fallow months of January and February.<\/p>\n

While business is brisk right now, that hasn\u2019t always been the case. In 2007, the family borrowed \u20ac4 million to expand the hotel\u2019s bedroom stock and upgrade other parts of the property. <\/p>\n

A year later, the banking and property crash hit, resulting in a 20 per cent slump in demand, and a squeeze to pay its bills. <\/p>\n

\u201cI finished college [business studies at the University of Limerick] in 2008, and had done work experience with KPMG, and had to come back here. There was no option. It was sink or swim. There were no wages for a few years and it was just shoulder to the wheel. I\u2019d say 2010 was the worst of it. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe tightened our belts as much as we could and innovated with marketing, doing things digitally, working as many hours as we could.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also estimates that the business lost a couple of million euro in revenue during the Covid-19 pandemic, but they retained the management team and used the lockdowns as an opportunity to refurbish the whole property. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverywhere got painted and we did up every room and laid carpets. We did a lot of work ourselves. In 2022, we started to come out of Covid and got good results. We were [rated] the fifth best hotel in Ireland on Trip Advisor and we had fantastic sales and the icing on the cake was being invited to join Ireland\u2019s Blue Book [hospitality scheme].\u201d <\/p>\n

As a service to visitors, O\u2019Neill runs history walks and tours of its gardens. He has dabbled in politics, too, with the locals voting him in as mayor of Clonakilty in 2019, a title previously held by his grandfather Con and uncle Ray. \u201cI\u2019ve the same name as my father and I\u2019d say a lot of people thought they were voting for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Future innovations, he says, might include a sauna or wellness area in the gardens. \u201cIt\u2019s the way to go, but we just need to let things settle with this investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family holds regular innovation meetings with managers and has been using the services of business coaches each month since 2007. \u201cWe\u2019re a family and have our head down pedalling hard. It\u2019s good to bring in fresh eyes from outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

His first memory of being in the hotel is of receiving a drum kit as a child and setting up beside a wedding band and banging away. \u201cMaking an awful noise, it was great. There would be different families coming to stay and I\u2019d be out meeting them and playing with the kids. I grew up in the house, so had my own walk-in fridge and pastry chef. I only moved out when I got married.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill turned 40 in December and sees this as his long-term career. \u201cHopefully. I have friends who\u2019d be talking about going to work on Monday as being a bit of a \u2018dose\u2019, but I love coming in here. There are challenges but it\u2019s home in more ways than one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Could there be a fifth generation running the hotel in the years to come? \u201cI\u2019d say they\u2019re could [be] but my eldest is only eight. They\u2019ve a bit of time yet.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The distinctive smell of newly laid carpet tickles your nostrils and is the first hint of the recent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,46,15940,61,60],"class_list":["post-372585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-cork","tag-hotels","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}