Dublin's Citywest Hotel, the largest hotel in the country, today opens its doors to guests for the first time in nearly two years.
Citywest shut its doors in March 2020 in line with the entire hospitality sector.
From March 26, it was licensed for use by the HSE until the end of January this year to support the national effort to bring Covid-19 under control.
But the easing of pandemic restrictions on the hospitality sector means the 764-bedroom hotel is now open again for business.
The hotel is now scaling up its team and aims to return to the staffing complement of over 350 people it had before its closure to guests.
With strong domestic demand, particularly from corporates and event organisers, and a return in international travel for both leisure and business customers, Citywest Hotel said it was confident that it will return towards the strong position it held pre-Covid.
It said it has a "healthy pipeline" of overseas and conference bookings, including the Love Your Home exhibition, Self-build Exhibition, The Hardware Show and The Wedding Journal to name just a few.
Glenn Valentine, General Manager of Citywest Hotel, said the hotel has a very ambitious strategy in place to rebuild its business and operations to the levels experienced pre-pandemic.
"The ownership and leadership team here at Citywest are extremely proud of and grateful to our team for the enormous work done in support of the HSE's operations over the past two years, and also pay tribute to the professionalism and dedication of the HSE, the medical staff who operated here and to the large number of volunteers and others who provided support for what was a national effort," Mr Valentine said.
Citywest Hotel had expanded its position in the US and EMEA conference markets before Covid after a substantial €13m investment in upgraded facilities since 2016.
