A Travelodge firm recorded a pre-tax profit of €8.65m from operating a Dublin hotel exclusively for International Protection (IP) applicants last year.
Pumkinspice Ltd secured a contract in early 2022 from the State to house IP applicants at its newly-constructed, 393 room hotel on Townsend Street in Dublin 2.
The directors state that "the hotel secured a State contract and traded exclusively under this contract in 2022".
New accounts for Pumkinspice Ltd show that, in its first year to trade, the hotel firm recorded revenues of €18.54m from the State contracts.
Giving an insight into the cost of constructing hotels in the capital, Pumpkinspice directors state that the firm's capital costs totalled €74.6m at the end of 2021; just over two weeks before the hotel opened on 17 January 2022.
Underlining the earnings that accommodation providers can earn from accommodating IP applicants on State contracts, the company’s Earnings Before Interest, Depreciation, Tax and Amortisation (EBITDA) totalled €12.15m for the year.
The directors state that business and leisure travel returned in 2022, but not yet to pre-Covid levels.
They state that they have been able to mitigate some of this risk by being awarded State contracts, which have continued into 2023.
The company continued with the State contract until April of the year, when it opened to trade as a hotel with the general public.
Last year, the company employed 59 and staff costs totalled €2.4m.
The pre-tax profit takes into account non-cash depreciation costs of €2m and interest payments of €1.47m.
The company recorded a post tax profit of €8.25m after incurring a corporation tax charge of €405,064.
Shareholder funds at the end of December 2022 totalled €38.7m and cash funds amounted to €3.05m.
Separate accounts show that a Dublin-based business only set up in January of last year to accommodate refugees is already paying dividends for its owners.
Heronwell Ltd - established by Lucan businessman, Derek Scully - was incorporated on 25 January 2022 and last year received €9n from the State for accommodating Ukrainian refugees.
Now, in the first set of accounts filed by Heronwell, it shows that it recorded post tax profits of €3.963m for 2022.
The accounts show that the business proposed to pay out a dividend of €3.9m to shareholders from the 2022 profits resulting in the business having accumulated profits of just €63,332 at the end of 2022.
The firm re-registered as an unlimited company this week where it is no longer required to file annual accounts to the Companies Office.
Recent Dept of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth figures show that the combined bill for the first six months of this year for accommodating Ukrainians and International Protection applicants is €850m.
It showed that if the spend remains at the same rate, that the bill for the 12 months of 2023 will top €1.7bn.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
