The Park Hotel in Kenmare in Co Kerry, owned by brothers Francis and John Brennan for the last 43 years, has been sold to Irish businessman and social entrepreneur Bryan Meehan.
The hotel had been put up for sale in May with a price tag of €17m.
The 5-star 41-bedroomed hotel Park Hotel Kenmare has five dining centres, a lap pool, an infinity pool, a private cinema and a luxury spa.
A total of €3m has been invested in the hotel in recent years which included the refurbishment of all the bedrooms, corridors and a complete renovation of the group floor public areas and kitchen.
Mr Meehan sold his Blue Bottle Coffee business for €420m to Nestlé in 2017, while he also founded the Fresh & Wild chain of organic supermarkets in London that was later sold to Whole Foods.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, John Brennan, the hotel's outgoing Managing Director, said he had mixed feelings but selling the hotel was the right decision.
"You do not leave a business after 40 years without having mixed thoughts. And you certainly do not leave a business like the Park Hotel with the team that have worked with us for so many years without mixed emotions," he said.
Mr Brennan added that you have to balance these feelings with the future and the decisions that have been made over the last few weeks.
He said that Bryan and Tara Meehan had "energy" and a "vision" for the property.
Mr Brennan said he fostered a "very honest relationship" with the Meehans from day one. He said it has been a quick process but "right".
The former managing director said the pandemic period was a "dream" as he finally had the summer months off.
"What people do not realise very often about hotels you actually do not need a lock on the front door because you are actually never closed, so there is 24 hours stress, 365 days of the year and that is just the nature of the business, which we have loved for so many years," he stated.
He added that the toughest moment in his career was in 2008.
"2008 was a tsunami that hit us financially, markets fell all over the world, airlines stopped flying the routes that they would have been on regularly and our access to market and the available cash in those markets all dried up, so 2008 and the following years were tough," he explained.
Mr Brennan said in his experience working in the tourism industry roughly every four or five years there is a world event that threatens travel, and you think we will never survive.
"We have always survived and that is the resilience of tourism," he added.
