Belfast city centre is offering visitors an extra 1,170 hotel rooms after a boom in development, according to a report released today.
From a Titanic-themed venue to the George Best Hotel, hoteliers are making use of Belfast’s heritage. But with the new hotels all falling into the three or four-star brackets, it’s claimed that Belfast may soon need a new crop of five-star venues. The Belfast Hotel Market Snapshot by agents Lambert Smith Hampton maps out all the new hotels added this year, as well as hotels which have added extensions.
The changes have boosted the supply of rooms by 47% to over 9,000. The average daily room rate has also grown by 25% to £81.65. Many of the new venues have been added by long-established family businesses, from Hastings Hotels’ Grand Central to Andras Hotels’ Hampton by Hilton. Others have been planned by newcomers such as Ben and Peter Ringland’s The Flint Hotel.
Hastings Hotels’ Bedford Street four-star Grand Central Hotel added 304 rooms and marked another nod to heritage as its name was taken from the old Grand Central Hotel, which traded in Royal Avenue from 1893 to 1971.
Other big openings this year include the three-star Maldron Hotel, which brought 237 rooms, the 188 rooms added by the four-star AC Hotel Marriott and three-star Hampton by Hilton’s 179 rooms. Across four hotels, another 183 rooms are under construction and due to open their doors early next year.
They include the George Best Hotel and its 63 sport-themed rooms and Bank Square Boutique Hotel, which is adding 17 rooms.
Darren Fitzsimons, director of hotels at Lambert Smith Hampton, said that Belfast’s tourism industry is booming and it is brilliant to see the hotel sector reacting to demand this year. He said that both overnight trips and expenditure had doubled over the last 10 years. Mr Fitzsimons added the new crop of hotels was addressing a long-standing lack of supply.
