Burlington Sale

For those readers who aspire to be, or already are, hoteliers, The Burlington Hotel, Dublin, which changed hands for £228 million at the height of the property boom, is up for sale for a fraction of that price.

I haven't stayed in the Burlington since the early 1980s.

The four-star Burlington, one of Europe's biggest city centre hotels, was bought in 2007 by a consortium backed by Bernard McNamara from the Jurys Doyle hotel group for one of the highest prices for land in Dublin ever.

McNamara has since become one of the biggest casualties of the property crash.

The hotel, with 501 bedrooms and conference and banqueting facilities on a 3.8 acre site in the south of Dublin, is the second-biggest hotel in Ireland after Citywest in County Dublin.

Known as the 'Burlo' in Dublin, it was placed in receivership by Lloyds Banking Group in February along with two other hotels, which all continue to trade as normal. The Burlington is now back on the market for €65m-75m.

CBRE Hotels is handling the sale on behalf of Paul McCann of Grant Thornton, who was appointed receiver by Lloyds-owned Bank of Scotland (Ireland), one of McNamara's main lenders.

McNamara owes the bank about €200m.

The Burlington is expected to attract interest from the investment partners of international hotel chains such as the Sheraton, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott and Crowne Plaza.

The landmark hotel, which opened in 1972 and briefly closed in January, 2008, is expected to change hands before Christmas, 2012.

Paul Collins of CBRE Hotels said the strong recovery of the Dublin hotel market had been "quite remarkable" since late 2010.

He added the Burlington "should appeal to many international hotel investors and the opportunity to acquire Ireland's most successful and best known hotel, is undoubtedly going to generate strong worldwide interest". 

This weekend the hotel is expected to accommodate almost 1,000 overnight guests for the US college football game between Notre Dame and Navy, an event which is bringing 35,000 American tourists to Dublin.

The hotel is estimated to have made profits of €5m-6m last year, with a large chunk coming from the conference space and banqueting hall, which can host 2,000 guests.

The room occupancy rate is running at about 70-75%.

The €65m-75m guide price equates to about €130,000-150,000 a room.