![\"US](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/93e42773-986c-4f82-b7ca-69f81726f5c8.jpg\")
<\/p>\nProfits reduced despite revenues \u00adincreasing by 2pc\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
US visitors make up 65pc of business at Ashford Castle. Photo: Getty<\/p>\n
Revenues at the five-star luxury \u00adAshford Castle resort in Co Mayo last year increased to \u20ac32m on the back of \u2018ultra high net worth\u2019 guests booking the likes of the hotel\u2019s Presidential Suite that can cost up to \u20ac7,250 per night.<\/p>\n
New accounts filed by Ashford \u00adCastle Hotel Ltd show that higher food and \u00adlabour costs contributed to pre-tax \u00adprofits reducing by 27pc to \u20ac1.32m last year.<\/p>\n
Profits reduced despite revenues \u00adincreasing by 2pc from \u20ac31.45m to \u20ac32m last year which was driven by an increase in average room rates. <\/p>\n
In an interview, general manager Niall Rochford said 2024 was \u201ca strong year\u201d for Ashford Castle despite a \u00addifficult first four months when business was not as strong as expected.<\/p>\n
Mr Rochford said the hotel had to deal with higher costs last year and pointed to the hotel firm\u2019s local authority rates bill almost tripling from \u20ac167,554 to \u20ac451,619.<\/p>\n
The resort\u2019s insurance bill also \u00adincreased from \u20ac319,671 to \u20ac355,082.<\/p>\n
The Red Carnation-owned Ashford Castle staged the 2017 wedding of US Masters champion Rory McIlroy and \u00adErica Stoll, and Mr Rochford said \u2018ultra high net worth\u2019 guests \u201cwho see Ireland as a destination of choice for luxury and ultra-luxury holidays\u201d remain an \u00adimportant part of the business.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
US visitors make up 65pc of business at Ashford Castle. Photo: Getty<\/p>\n
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – Friday October 10. <\/p>\n
Mr Rochford said \u201cwe are working harder to generate profits\u201d and noted US visitors make up 65pc of business with Irish guests accounting for 25pc of business.<\/p>\n
Asked about occupancy rates in 2025, Mr Rochford said that from June to the end of September \u201cwe have been \u00adoperating at maximum capacity\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ashford \u00adCastle\u2019s Earnings Before \u00adInterest Tax Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) last year decreased by \u20ac804,546 to \u20ac6.58m.<\/p>\n
The company last year enjoyed \u00adoperating profits of \u20ac2.98m and finance costs of \u20ac1.65m reduced profits to a pre-tax profit of \u20ac1.32m<\/p>\n
Mr Rochford said that he expects \u00adrevenues to increase in 2025 compared to last year.<\/p>\n
On the contentious Vat cut for \u00adhospitality to be introduced next year by Government, Mr Rochford said: \u201cIt is appropriate as it is extremely difficult to make any level of profit in food-led businesses right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The staff numbers at Ashford \u00adCastle last year reduced from 342 to 327 while staff costs increased from \u20ac10.7m to \u20ac11.4m.<\/p>\n
Cash funds at the firm last year \u00adreduced from \u20ac7.32m to \u20ac3.97m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Profits reduced despite revenues \u00adincreasing by 2pc US visitors make up 65pc of business at Ashford Castle. Photo:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,898],"class_list":{"0":"post-74999","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-latest-news-ticker"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74999","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=74999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}