Aparthotel operator Staycity Group has opened its seventh property in Dublin, bringing its total number of apartments in the Irish capital to nearly 1,200.
The new flagship Dublin City Centre features 340 studio and one-bed apartments, making it the largest of Staycity’s 32 European properties. The Dublin-based company has undergone rapid expansion in the past two years, opening 2,700 self-catering apartments across its Staycity and Wilde Aparthotels brands in locations such as Lisbon, Paris, London and Heidelberg.
Staycity Group CEO and co-founder Tom Walsh said: “Dublin is immensely important to us and it's fantastic to see the growing popularity of the city as a destination for both leisure and increasingly returning business travellers.”
As the return of corporate travel gathers speed, hotels in the Irish capital reported 96 per cent occupancy rates in June, the highest in Europe according to online platform AltoVita, along with some of the fastest-rising rates in the region.
On Thursday (15 September) Staycity also announced a five-year £30 million loan facility from UK bank OakNorth Bank. According to the company, this comes on the back of like-for-like RevPAR (rooms revenue per available room) and operating margins that are now ahead of 2019 levels together with healthy bookings into the final quarter of 2022.
The loan will also see a £15m Covid support loan granted in 2020 converted into a regular loan facility. Further contingency has also been provided by the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), which has extended Staycity’s credit facility from €20m to €30m for five years if required.
However, following the company’s strong performance in 2022, Walsh expects to be debt-free in three years.
“Staycity is going into 2023 in a strong position with trading this year having surpassed our expectations. Our sales have been driven by leisure recovery and growth through our corporate channels,” he said.
“Looking forward, we’re cautious as all businesses are facing a number of macroeconomic threats including high levels of inflation, rising energy costs and the ongoing impact of the war in Ukraine. With these new OakNorth and ISIF facilities in place we have contingency plans if the economy moves into recession,” he added.