“The longer I am on the job the more I turn to de-cluttering and simplicity,” declared Peter MacCann, the general manager since 1996 of The Merrion, in Dublin, Ireland.
This is a 143-room hotel that seems to run like clockwork. The U.S. vies with Ireland as its main market, followed by the U.K. The average stay is two nights, and 2017 occupancy will be 86%, with about 60% repeats.
MacCann, a skilled networker with the Irish gift of the gab, seems to know them all. He has, after all, been here from the start. “I must admit that, looking back, the opening was pretty traumatic, with the added challenges of historical buildings that had, for instance, floors at different levels,” he said. “We were converting Mornington House, the birthplace of the Duke of Wellington, and three neighboring buildings, all 18th century, and putting on an adjacent six-floor new-build. Fortunately one of our owners, Billy Hastings, is a highly-respected veteran hotelier.”
The Merrion still has the same owners, who also include art lover Lochlann Quinn, who has loaned some of the priceless paintings and sculptures that help to make this hotel so special.
“Many review sites mention the art, and author Jeffrey Archer, writing in the London-based The Daily Telegraph last weekend, similarly raved about our paintings – he also kindly said this is his favorite hotel in the world,” said the Irishman MacCann, with his characteristic smile. “I believe in TripAdvisor, I reply to every posting, and it is heart-warming to read praise for the hotel’s authenticity, humanity and service.”
But to keep service levels up he has to cope with the growing challenge of talent. In 1997 he was getting 18,000 applications a year for 170 jobs. Now The Merrion is lucky to get 10,000, and yet today, with added emphasis on service, he is up 100 roles on opening, to 272 total (10 have been with him since the start).
He himself turned to hospitality after his parents thought there was no future in their family business, farming. “I came up through F&B and learned the rest on the job,” he explained. His wife, Dorothy MacCann, is his main advisor, guardian of the hotel’s reputation and brand director: for The Merrion’s fifth anniversary celebrations she commissioned a stylish pink-hued Merrion rose (As well as a new spa, what else has she planned for the 21st birthday celebrations, which will run throughout 2018?).
Despite the clockwork-style operation, there are continual enhancements. On October 23, the hotel opened a €20 million (US$23.8 million) extension, turning what was a C-shaped structure into an open square, around a gorgeous garden. There is a new all-day restaurant, The Garden Room, flowing out in summer into semi-private terraces bordered by neatly trimmed hedges. The GM’s idea of de-cluttering includes having a well-placed full kitchen for The Garden Room. Now, to save sending linens out, a 24/7 hotel laundry processes everything, including laundry and dry-cleaning for guests. Simplicity means that a new-build, four-floor block with six residential apartments, all pre-sold, has more than paid for the entire building project (there are now 14 residences, whose owners, all but one of them Irish, have full hotel privileges).
“This is a simple business and does not need confusion,” MacCann said. “We only need to remember that we look after people and make sure our house is in order, it is as easy as that.”