A business budget? Just don’t say it to hoteliers...
Curbing tax reliefs when they have fulfilled their purpose shows backbone and sound financial sense. But it won’t make the government any friends in the hospitality sector
Five years ago, I wrote a lengthy feature on the calamitous state of the Irish hotel industry entitled ‘Heartbreak hotels’. At the time, Ireland was littered with half-empty hotels, built at huge expense courtesy of huge debt and generous tax breaks. It was all very nouveau riche: per head of population, our developers built the greatest stock of four- and five-star hotels in the world.
In 2013, there were 12 hotels in the ...
