The MHL Hotel Collection has completed the acquisition of three Dublin hotels – the Spencer Hotel, Morgan Hotel and Beacon Hotel – from the Fitzpatrick Lifestyle Hotel Group. Following these acquisitions MHL will become the largest owner of 5-star and 4-star hotels (by number of bedrooms) in Dublin city centre.
MHL (previously the John Malone Partnership) involves John Malone (Chairman, Liberty Media and Liberty Global), Paul Higgins and John Lally. All of the Collection’s individual hotels will continue to trade under their existing names and brands, and the re-branding of the hotel group is currently nearing completion. MHL is now the second largest hotel group in Dublin city with over 1,150 5-star and 4-star bedrooms, all in prime locations.
Paul Higgins, Partner, said: “We are very pleased to add three very complementary hotels that deliver scale benefits and additional capacity at a time of significant demand for hotel accommodation in Dublin city. Our focus as a group remains on acquiring, re-investing and managing our collection of high quality hotels, both branded and non-branded, and to apply our expertise to drive continuing growth over the medium to long term.
“To date we have added or are in the process of adding almost 140 new bedrooms and we have sought planning permission for an additional 100+ rooms. This planned 240-bedroom, €30+ million expansion should add almost 20% to the hotel capacity acquired over recent years, as well as enhancing our already well invested and strongly performing hotels.”
The MHL Hotel Collection employs over 1,100 staff and is actively seeking to attract new talent. “As headcount continues to grow, we are constantly on the lookout for talented staff to fill new roles,” Paul added. “We currently have vacancies for about two dozen roles, many of these in Dublin. We are finding that jobseekers are attracted by the prospect of joining a collection of upmarket hotels that offers enhanced career development and expansion across our now larger group.”
