Why Energy Costs Hit Regional Irish Hotels Harder Than Dublin And What to Do About It

Regional Hotels in Ireland

The latest Crowe Ireland Annual Hotel Industry Survey (2025) confirms what many regional hoteliers already feel in their bones: running a hotel outside Dublin is a fundamentally different financial proposition. And when it comes to energy costs, that difference has never mattered more.

The Food & Beverage Factor: A Tale of Two Business Models

The Crowe survey data reveals a striking structural divide between Dublin city hotels and their regional counterparts. Food, beverage and other departmental revenues account for 56% of total revenue at regional Ireland hotels, compared to just 35% for Dublin hotels. Put another way, rooms revenue makes up 65% of a Dublin hotel's income, while regional hotels depend on rooms for only 44%.

This isn't a coincidence, it reflects the nature of regional hospitality. Country hotels, resort properties and market town establishments rely heavily on restaurant dining, bar trade, wedding business and leisure group packages. These are high-volume, energy-intensive operations. Kitchens run for long hours. Banqueting suites are heated and lit for events. Bar areas are staffed and operational across multiple trading sessions each day.

Dublin city hotels, by contrast, are more room-centric. Guests eat out. Corporate travellers grab breakfast and leave. The ground-floor food and beverage operation is a smaller slice of the overall business.

Kitchens and ground-floor food service operations are among the largest consumers of gas and electricity in any hospitality building. Commercial ovens, combi-steamers, dishwashers, extraction systems, refrigeration, heated display units, all of these run continuously during service periods and often outside of them too.

The Crowe survey specifically notes that regional Ireland hotels benefited from a proportionately larger reduction in energy costs in 2024, partly because they had more to reduce. Even after a 9.2% reduction in energy costs year-on-year (versus 6.8% for Dublin), regional hotels are still spending 50% more per room on utilities than their Dublin counterparts.

The arithmetic is straightforward: if nearly 50% of your revenue comes from food and beverage, and food production is one of the heaviest users of gas and electricity on your premises, then energy price movements hit you harder and faster than they hit a room-led Dublin operation.

Regional hotels sales mix relies heavier on food and beverages

What Regional Hoteliers Should Be Doing Now

Understanding the problem is the first step. Acting on it is the second.

Get a detailed energy baseline by department. Many hotels track total energy spend but don't break it down by area of operation. Sub-metering or interval monitoring on kitchen equipment, HVAC zones and laundry can reveal where consumption is highest and where reductions are achievable without affecting the guest experience.

Review kitchen equipment efficiency. Commercial kitchen equipment varies enormously in energy consumption. Older combination ovens, fryers and dishwashers are frequently the biggest culprits. Replacing or upgrading key pieces of equipment can yield significant ongoing savings, and SEAI (Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland) grant supports may be available to offset capital costs.

Consider operating hour discipline. Not every service period justifies the energy footprint it carries. Reviewing breakfast service set-up times, kitchen pre-heat schedules and bar heating arrangements can reduce consumption without reducing covers.

The Bottom Line

The structural difference between Dublin and regional Irish hotels isn't just about room rates or occupancy. It's about what kind of business you're running. A food-led regional hotel carries a fundamentally higher energy cost burden per euro of revenue than a room-led city hotel and the data from the Crowe Ireland Annual Hotel Survey makes that case clearly.

For regional hoteliers, the question isn't whether energy costs matter. It's whether you're managing them with the same rigour you apply to payroll, procurement and pricing.

Download the full Crowe Report here