{"id":463087,"date":"2026-05-23T08:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T08:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/463087\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T08:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T08:09:07","slug":"dunloe-hotel-in-killarney-gets-e100m-renovation-from-german-liebherr-family-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/463087\/","title":{"rendered":"Dunloe Hotel in Killarney gets \u20ac100m renovation from German Liebherr family \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The German owners of the five-star Dunloe Hotel & Gardens near Killarney<\/a>, Co Kerry<\/a>, have begun a \u20ac100 million renovation of the property to transform it into a luxury resort. <\/p>\n

The scale of the project makes it one of the biggest hotel renovation investments in the State, putting it on a par with the sums spent to overhaul Adare Manor<\/a> in Limerick by JP McManus and his family, and Ashford Castle<\/a> in Cong, Co Mayo, which is owned by Red Carnation Hotels.<\/p>\n

The Dunloe opened in 1965 and is owned by the Liebherr family from Germany, who have extensive investments in the area. It is a sister property of the nearby five-star Europe Hotel and the Ard na Sidhe Country House. <\/p>\n

The Dunloe project involves demolishing the existing bedroom blocks, an event space and the swimming pool. Only the restaurant and reception area will remain. <\/p>\n

When completed, the hotel will have 97 rooms, down from 102 previously. However, 18 suites will be part of that mix, as opposed to one large suite previously. There will also be nine large family rooms. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are reducing the number of rooms slightly but we\u2019re increasing the number of suites. It\u2019s a whole new footprint, with the two existing bedroom blocks being demolished,\u201d said Michael Brennan, managing director of Killarney Hotels Ltd.<\/p>\n

The hotel will also include a spa and wellness area and enhanced conferencing and event facilities. Staff accommodation is also being built on site and a rewilding project is planned for the grounds, along with new pathways and an enhanced entrance to the property. <\/p>\n

Brennan said the company hopes to add padel courts and stables in a separate phase of redevelopment. <\/p>\n

The hotel closed last October, as it would each year, and is scheduled to reopen in June 2028. \u201cWe want to capture some of the summer of \u203228, that\u2019s the plan,\u201d Brennan said. <\/p>\n

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Why such a big refurbishment as opposed to remodelling the existing property? <\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked at remodelling it but the family felt that, realistically, it didn\u2019t make sense. There\u2019s no lift to the second bedroom block; the floor levels are different, with a lot of steps. This gives us an opportunity to correct those things and make it more accessible and more sustainable,\u201d Brennan said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe will have a conference and events centre that we didn\u2019t have before so we would hope to attract business from both Irish and overseas companies as well.\u201d <\/p>\n

He expects the renovated hotel to complement the offering at the Europe. \u201cThe Europe is a different offering. It is on the lakeshore, it has a much bigger spa and a bigger conference space. We feel we can create a separate market for the Dunloe.\u201d <\/p>\n

Brennan said trading so far this year has been \u201cexcellent\u201d in spite of the cost-of-living pressures in the economy. He expects like-for-like revenues to rise by 4 to 5 per cent. <\/p>\n

The group generated income of about \u20ac34.5 million last year from its three properties. He expects this to reduce to between \u20ac26 million and \u20ac27 million this year with the Dunloe closed.<\/p>\n

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\u201cCosts are very difficult. Everything is increasing, as we all know, but trading is very strong. There\u2019s value in Irish hotels and particularly in our market segment, and people are prepared to pay for that value and quality.\u201d <\/p>\n

Brennan said the size of the investment demonstrated the long-term commitment of the Liebherr family to Killarney. They first invested in the area in 1958, opening a factory that still makes port equipment and container cranes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a commitment to Ireland as opposed to looking at a return on investment. Of course, they do intend to make money out of it but they are taking a long-term view. One of the exciting things is that this is the third generation of the family and all of the children and cousins are committed to Killarney.\u201d <\/p>\n

In terms of the pricing of rooms, Brennan said precise figures will be worked out closer to the Dunloe\u2019s reopening date but \u201cat the moment, if I was to put a price on them now, it would be \u20ac1,200 to \u20ac1,400 a night for the suites and \u20ac450-\u20ac500 for the rooms\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The German owners of the five-star Dunloe Hotel & Gardens near Killarney, Co Kerry, have begun a \u20ac100…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[32862,45739,72,61,60,7727,41961,200328],"class_list":["post-463087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-adare-manor","tag-ashford-castle","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kerry","tag-killarney","tag-michael-brennan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463087","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=463087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}