With a string of acquisitions and new hotel developments over the past eight years, the 33 years old managing director of Lynch Hotels is planning to grow the group to 20 properties over the next four years.

Over those eight years Lynch Hotel Group has grown from two to seven hotels and it has now added five associate hotels which bring its total rooms complement to 1,200 and annual turnover to more than

Michael prefers acquisitions to new builds. you buy a ready-made business which you can develop. You can also buy cash flow which is what this business is all about. We built the South Court in 1997 and while it has been very successful, building the business was a tough job

The properties are grouped under two brands. The South Court, Galway Bay and Breaffy House, all four stars, are Lynch Premier Hotels while the four three stars ( West County, Ennis, Clare Inn, Newmarket on Fergus, Ocean Cove, Kilkee and Haydens, Ballinasloe ) are Lynch Family Hotels.

Premier brand , says Michael Lynch, the corporate and conference markets while the Family hotels are primarily are aimed at the leisure market with some conference and business in the mix

To these, Lynch has now added five hotels to which it provides marketing and purchasing services. For an up front fee and ten percent of business delivered, these hotels these hotels come within the Lynch brand and gain access to the group Central Reservations Office in Ennis and to group marketing activity.

the past year we have achieved more than 80 per cent average room occupancy and an average yield of more than

have a simple manual system , he adds. Every week we look at our forward occupancy and we decide on the rooms in each hotel which we can allocate to promotions. Our staff at Central Reservations Office are then given a list of rates to sell. Working from this they aim to achieve the highest possible yield. It works very well, but as we grow I see the system becoming more aufomated

In a move towards automation Lynch now uses the Amateo marketing systems which enables it to mine its data base for the lists of customers most likely to respond to specific offers.

Michael says that the immediate objective for the Group is to improve its average yield by offering added value to the customer.

Published in Hotel & Catering Review, November 2002.

 back to listing