{"id":277129,"date":"2026-01-10T04:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T04:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/277129\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T04:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T04:53:11","slug":"losses-at-five-star-ballyfin-demesne-hotel-quadrupled-in-2024-accounts-show-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/277129\/","title":{"rendered":"Losses at five-star Ballyfin Demesne hotel quadrupled in 2024, accounts show \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Losses at the company behind the five-star Ballyfin Demesne<\/a> hotel in Co Laois grew more than fourfold in 2024, largely down to a dip in turnover on the accommodation side of its business.<\/p>\n

Originally built in 1826 as a private home of the Coote family, then run as a Patrician Brothers boarding school for boys for 74 years from 1928, Ballyfin was bought in 2002 by the Chicago-based Krehbiel family. <\/p>\n

It took a decade of restoration, involving significant investment, to transform it into the 20-room luxury hotel it is today. The price of bed and breakfast there for two people on Saturday is between \u20ac1,580 and \u20ac2,890 depending on the size of the room. <\/p>\n

Accounts filed for Ballyfin Demesne Ltd with the Companies Registration Office show turnover for 2024 amounted to \u20ac6,614,878, which was down more than \u20ac240,000 from the year before.<\/p>\n

The company incurred a loss after tax of \u20ac389,281 in the year, which was more than four times the \u20ac90,155 it shipped in 2023. <\/p>\n

The hit to the group\u2019s bottom line can largely be attributed to a reduction in turnover from the accommodation side of its business. It generated just over \u20ac4 million here, which was down from just under \u20ac4.3 million in 2023.<\/p>\n

The group increased its turnover from food and beverages marginally to just over \u20ac1.95 million, while \u201cother\u201d turnover also rose slightly to \u20ac646,889. There was also a marginal increase in the cost of sales from \u20ac3,589,831 to \u20ac3,665,254.<\/p>\n

The hotel has a one-star Michelin <\/a>restaurant, which was awarded to resident chef, British-born Richard Picard-Edwards, in February last year. Ballyfin also retained its three-star Michelin Key status last year, which recognises exceptional hotels.<\/p>\n

The hotel was the scene of a fatal assault in November of the year the accounts cover after 60-year-old American guest John McGowan was found dead. His son, 30-year-old Henry McGowan, whom it was noted in court had significant mental health issues, was charged with his murder.<\/p>\n

The group employed 96 people in the year, up from 93, and spent \u20ac3.5 million on staff, up from \u20ac3.2 million.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s net asset position amounted to \u20ac22.8 million, which was down from \u20ac23.2 million. The directors did not recommend payment of a dividend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Losses at the company behind the five-star Ballyfin Demesne hotel in Co Laois grew more than fourfold in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[34739,18,117,19,17,22906],"class_list":{"0":"post-277129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-ballyfin-demesne","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-michelin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115869018013049898","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}