Member News - January 2019

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MEMBER NEWS

LOUGH ERNE RESORT

» The Hotel Alone: Lost at Lough Erne package is offering the ultimate seasonal getaway to fans of the cult 90s Home Alone films. Guests will live like Kevin McAllister for the day, enjoying an in-suite trolley laden with bowls of ice cream, cookies, marshmallows and jellybeans. A cheese pizza will be delivered by room service before settling down in bathrobes to watch Home Alone 1 & 2 in the comfort of one of the resort’s loughview suites.

NIHF MEMBER NEWS

BEECH HILL HOTEL

The Beech Hill Hotel has been acquired by The House Collection following a multimillion-pound investment with support from First Trust Bank.

The hotel is now under the ownership of entrepreneurs Sam Harding, Barry Kemp and Adam Kemp who between them run a number of local and international businesses. The House Collection hopes to bring new life to the iconic hotel which was sold by the O’Kane and Donnelly families, the previous owners for more than two decades.

The new owners have already created five new jobs at the hotel and have an ambitious growth plan to become the best four-star hotel in Northern Ireland.

HOLIDAY INN BELFAST

Holiday Inn Belfast City Centre has been ranked the number one Holiday Inn Hotel in the UK and Ireland and granted the highest possible ranking in IHG’s Elite Status. The hotel is one of only five hotels out of 133 in the IHG group to have achieved the Elite status, being ranked number one within the five.

The Elite status was achieved through outstanding Guest Satisfaction survey results and Andras House attributes the success to the continued investment into its team, each of whom are trained through the group’s Andras Academy. Vikrant Tyagi, General Manager of Holiday Inn, Belfast said: “We are absolutely delighted to be awarded this most prestigious accolade and would like to thank our excellent team for making this possible.

BUSHMILLS INN HOTEL

The Best Loved Awards, now in their 4th year, celebrated a whole host of winners, representing the ‘Best of the Best’ of the company’s UK, Irish and international hotel portfolios. All of the hotels are independently-owned, across the country’s regions, with thirteen specialist categories, which attracted over 7,500 nominations from customers all over the world.

Nominations for the Best Loved Awards opened in June 2018 and Best Loved customers were invited to nominate hotels where they had stayed and experienced ‘best in class’ stays. The Bushmills Inn were delighted to be crowned the regional winner for all Ireland earning them the coveted title of Best Hotel in Ireland.

MEMBER NEWS7

BEANNCHOR GROUP

» Beannchor, has taken a major step towards reducing its carbon footprint by agreeing a £500,000 renewable electricity contract with 3T Power.

The clean energy transition has been rolled out across the group’s entire portfolio including The Merchant Hotel, Bullitt Belfast, The National & Sixty6, Little Wing, The Dirty Onion and Hillside Bar and Restaurant, with all venues now using 100% renewable electricity, generated locally by wind farms in Northern Ireland.

BISHOP’S GATE HOTEL

Bishop’s Gate Hotel has scooped one of the main accolades in the UK hospitality sector, having been named as AA Hotel of the Year (Northern Ireland) 2018-19.

Ciaran O’Neill, Managing Director of Bishop’s Gate says: “Winning the AA Hotel of the Year (Northern Ireland) 2018-19 award is a massive achievement for an independently run boutique hotel and restaurant, which only opened its doors in 2016. This award is the AA’s ultimate accolade for hotels in the UK.

The hotel has also been listed in the 45th Anniversary Edition of the prestigious Ireland’s Blue Book. The book is a guide to an impeccable collection of 56 country house hotels, manor houses, castles and restaurants located throughout the island of Ireland.

MAHON’S HOTEL

The Mahon Family has been welcoming guests to their hotel since 1883. During 2019 the family will celebrate the success of their hotel with a year-long programme of events to acknowledge this impressive achievement.

Joe Mahon explains “We are very proud to be able to say that the hotel has been in the Mahon name for 135 years. The hotel has seen two world wars and the turning of two centuries.

“My grandfather Joe Mahon bought the hotel back in 1883. At the time it was a small hotel, with just 8 bedrooms. Several members of our family have been born in the hotel and for our Open House in November, we converted Room 4 (where I was born) into a nursery.”

ROE PARK RESORT

GolfNow and Roe Park Resort recently teamed up to offer golf fans across the UK the chance to win a round with Rory McIlroy on his home turf in Northern Ireland – and they couldn’t believe the response when over 222,000 people entered the competition.

The lucky prize winner Ash Rizi with his friend Richard Watson, both from Rory’s hometown of Holywood in County Down, played 18 holes alongside Rory at Royal Portrush. The winners also played at Castlerock Golf Club whilst staying and playing at Roe Park Resort. To top it off, the money-can’tbuy prize also included a full set of new TaylorMade clubs.

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MEMBER NEWS

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SLIEVE DONARD RESPORT & SPA

The Spa at Slieve Donard has been named Northern Ireland Spa of the Year at the Professional Beauty Regional Awards 2018 which took place in Manchester. The prestigious awards acknowledge excellence and celebrate the shining stars of the beauty industry. Pictured accepting the award are The Spa at Slieve Donard’s Reception Manager Sambie Lee and Spa Manager, Cathryn O’Neill.

The resort has also appointed two new senior mamagers. Michael Weston is now General Manager. Michael has almost

20 years’ management experience in the hospitality industry and previously worked for Walt Disney World, the Mooney Hotel Group, Hilton Hotels and Radisson Hotel Group.

Niall Burns has been appointed Deputy General Manager. Niall has worked for Hastings Hotels for over eight years and was previously named Bar Manager of the Year at the NI Institute of Hospitality Awards. He recently graduated from an Executive Management Program through the IMI and Fáilte Ireland.

CORR’S CORNER HOTEL

Twenty-five years ago, Eugene and Catherine McKeever walked into to Corrs Corner Hotel as the owners and started, the then bar and restaurant, on a journey to become one of the most loved hotels in the community.

No stranger to the ethos of Corrs Corner, Eugene has grown up with it, originally starting in 1966 and working his way to becoming the Head Chef in 1974, a position he held for 11 years. Since his time only 2 Head Chefs have succeeded him, a position currently held by Jason Gault. In an industry which is struggling to recruit, Corrs bucks the trend with over 40% of its team having over 10 years service, 6 of which are over 25 years.

HASTINGS HOTEL GROUP

The Directors of Hastings Hotels have announced that James McGinn has been appointed to the Board of Directors.

James joined Hastings in August 1996 as Quality Development Manager in the Europa Hotel under General Manager John Toner. Subsequently, he has held the positions of General Manager in the Stormont Hotel, Culloden Estate & Spa and the Europa Hotel where he has been at the helm since 2003.

He also appeared in the BBC TV series about the Europa Hotel, “Lobby Lives”, which ran from 2006 to 2008.

Over the last 25 years Eugene & Catherine have invested heavily in not just their employees but also have spent approximately £6 million in capital investment which has seen the original road house transform into a 68 bedroom hotel.

Corrs was the catalyst from which the McKeever Hotel Group began which now boasts 5 venues including; Dunsilly Hotel, Adair Arms Hotel, Dillons Hotel in Letterkenny and the most recent addition of the Dunadry Hotel, but Eugene admits, “Corrs Corner will always remain the special one to me; it is where I have spent 52 years of my life.”