Dublin, the compact, safe and convivial capital city of Ireland, is home to an extremely competitive hotel market offering excellent quality and value for money to meeting delegates and organisers alike. The number of bedrooms in the city currently stands at about 17,000 but this is forecast to rise to between 19,000 and 20,000 by 2010.

A favourable tax incentive climate, Dublin Airport’s ranking as the 19th busiest in the world and increasing visitor numbers complemented by a strong domestic market have all contributed to recent growth and international brands such as Marriott, Hilton, Four Seasons, Radisson, Park Plaza and Westin compete with well established Irish owned properties, who are proactively refurbishing and expanding their offering in order to attract an increasingly well-travelled and consequently discerning and sophisticated customer.

In 2007 alone just over 1000 bedrooms were added to the city’s hotel stock including the following brand new properties; The Radisson SAS Royal Hotel is a funky 4 star property which has already proved extremely popular with meeting organizers since it opened its doors in July and enjoys a super convenient city centre location with 150 bedrooms and meeting facilities for 10-400 delegates; the Ashbourne Marriott Hotel is the third Marriott property to open in and around Dublin and is a purpose built contemporary 4 star hotel located approximately 20km to the north of the city centre and Dublin Airport with spacious meeting facilities for up to 540 delegates and 148 bedrooms.

The Hilton Kilmainham is the third 4 star Hilton property for the city and is located close to the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), the Royal Hospital Kilmainham and the number one international visitor attraction, the Guinness Storehouse. Offering 120 bedrooms and meeting facilities for up to 60 delegates, the Hilton Kilmainham features the Living Well healthclub and is only 10 minutes from the city centre and the financial services district; the eagerly awaited Ritz Carlton opened in Autumn 2007 and is the award winning company’s first property in Ireland. Just thirty minutes from Dublin, the 5 star golf and spa resort has 201 rooms with 80 per cent of the accommodation being suites with a minimum size of 700 square foot (68 square meters), meeting facilities for 18-500 delegates and a 30,000 square foot (2,600 square meter) spa with twenty treatment rooms, gym and indoor 20 metre lap pool.

Additional brand new openings of note were The Tower Hotel Dublin, a 3 star deluxe property with 120 bedrooms and 8 dedicated meeting/conference rooms with capacity for up to 275 pax theatre style located in the southwest of Dublin, close to the M50 motorway and within walking distance of the Luas tram into city centre; City North Hotel, Gormanstown, Co. Meath, a 4 star property with 128 deluxe bedrooms and 14 conference suites ranging in size from 30sq mtrs to 540sq mtrs, 15 minutes from Dublin Airport; and two 3 star Comfort Inns, one at Granby Row in the heart of the city with 126 bedrooms and one at Citywest with 129 bedrooms.

And two extremely well known and much loved properties who had faded somewhat in recent years underwent major facelifts and remerged in 2007 looking fabulous. The Shelbourne Hotel was totally refurbished by Marriott and is now part of the Renaissance brand. This historic, landmark Dublin ‘institution’ reopened in March 2007, is located on St. Stephen’s Green in the heart of Georgian Dublin and is the city’s largest luxury 5 star hotel with 265 guest rooms including 19 suites and 12 banqueting and meeting suites to accommodate 10-360 guests. The Royal Marine Hotel located in Dun Laoghaire in the south of Dublin, reopened in the summer of 2007 after a €50million refurbishment. This historic 4 Star Deluxe property played host to many famous guests in its glamourous past including Laurel & Hardy and Danny Kaye and now offers 227 bedrooms and suites, a Spa and Leisure Centre and Conference and Banqueting for up to 800 pax theatre style. The incomparable views of Dublin Bay are simply the icing on the cake!

But Dublin isn’t resting on its laurels and the Dublin Docklands area of the city is where it’s all happening. This zone, which is literally only 10 minutes from the city centre, is the location for Dublin’s purpose built Kevin Roche designed Convention Centre Dublin (CCD) which will open in 2010. The CCD will have a 250 bedroom 5 star hotel attached to it and a 179 bedroom 4 star Monogram property will open in 2008/2009 just across the river Liffey. Monogram is an Irish owned luxury hotel group whose portfolio includes the Philip Treacy designed G Hotel in Galway. The Point Village is also undergoing a massive expansion which will include a 15,000 arena and a 250 bedroom hotel to be managed by the Choice Hotels group due to open in 2009.

And that’s not taking into account cityscape changing ambitions by The Clarence and the Moran Hotels group. The Lord Norman Foster plans, which are currently waiting approval, for the U2 owned Clarence Hotel intend to make it a bold new landmark for the city and incorporate a sculptural ‘skycatcher’ which embraces the main public spaces and pulls daylight deep into the base of the hotel. The Irish owned Moran Hotels group has been granted planning permission for a 17-storey extension to its hotel complex at the Red Cow roundabout which when completed in 2010/2011 will be the country’s tallest hotel, offering 488 bedrooms and conference facilities for up to 1800 delegates.

If you need to catch your breath after all that building and refurbishing activity, why not check out Killeen Castle Starwood Hotels & Resorts will open this Luxury Collection hotel in Dunsany in Co. Meath in 2009, making it the third hotel for the brand in Ireland. The 179 bedroom luxury golf and spa hotel will also have 1,357 square metres of meeting space, two restaurants, three bars and all just 30 minutes from Dublin Airport.