No room at the inn?

Christmas has come early for some city centre hotels with a high rate of occupancy for this weekend. 

While there are still a handful of rooms available in some popular hotels on Leeside, they are being booking up fast as shoppers make a weekend out of being in the city and Christmas parties throng the streets.

Ray Kelleher, Group Sales and Marketing Director with Trigon Hotels, told the Cork Independent: “Trigon Hotels, which owns the Metropole Hotel Cork, Cork International Hotel and Cork Airport Hotel, are having a very busy Christmas season with a lot of hotel bookings.

“In addition we are seeing a lot of people eating out at all our hotels for both lunch and dinner combined with the extensive party season. It is especially busy this week and last week with a lot of people combining a trip to Cork and a stay in a hotel for their Christmas shopping.”

Meanwhile, Cork city’s newest hotel is gearing up for a busy weekend as it celebrates its first birthday tomorrow, Friday. That’s the Maldron Hotel South Mall whose General Manager described the past year as “phenomenal” as they welcomed more than 70,000 people to stay.

Robert McCarthy told the Cork Independent: “As the General Manager of the hotel, I am delighted to say as we approach our first birthday in business this coming Friday, we have had a phenomenal year. It really has been everything we had planned for and more.

“We have had over 70,000 guests stay in our rooms and we have served over 200,000 meals in our restaurants.

“The overwhelming response has been extremely positive with repeat customers coming back so regularly. I would really like to thank all our neighbours on the Mall, who have supported us right from the start and made us feel really welcome in our new home.”