Opinion: Ireland’s Luxury Hotels are Sitting on Untapped Revenue Beyond the Room

Ireland’s luxury hotels are great at selling rooms, but for many four- and five-star independents, particularly those with strong dining, spa, golf, wellness or destination experiences, commercial focus often stops at the bedroom door. And that’s a problem.

In the Irish hotel market, margins are under pressure, and room-led growth has natural limits. Fáilte Ireland’s March 2026 Quarterly Economic Update shows hotel room occupancy was effectively flat in 2025, rising only marginally from 77.8% to 78.4%. Average Daily Rate increased by 3% to €174, in line with tourism inflation, while RevPAR also rose 3% to €136. It appears much of the sector’s growth is being absorbed by inflation rather than creating a step-change in profitability.

For luxury independents, the answer can’t simply be to keep pushing room rates higher. A more sustainable strategy is to capture more value from the guests already choosing the property. This requires selling beyond the room.

Ireland is well placed for this shift because our strongest hotels are rarely just places to sleep. A rural resort may have golf, spa, gardens, afternoon tea, private dining, whiskey tastings, walking trails or estate activities. An urban luxury hotel may have Michelin-starred restaurants, cocktail bars, wellness spaces, private dining rooms, cultural partnerships or curated local experiences. These aren’t ‘extras’; they are often the reason a guest chooses the hotel in the first place. Yet too often, they are marketed as amenities rather than managed as sellable inventory.

A guest may read about the spa but not be able to book a treatment during the room reservation. They may see a beautiful restaurant page but have to phone or email to secure a table. Golf may be central to the property’s appeal, but tee times, lessons or packages aren’t always surfaced in the guest booking journey. Upgrades, dog charges, and tasting menus may be available, but not presented at the exact moment when the guest is already in buying mode.

In any other consumer sector, this would be commercially unacceptable. Retailers don’t bury their most attractive products away from the checkout. Airlines don’t wait until passengers arrive at the airport to offer seats, bags and lounge access. E-commerce businesses understand that visibility, timing and ease of purchase are what convert intent into revenue. Hotels need the same commercial discipline.

The opportunity isn’t theoretical. Performance data from over 750 of our luxury hotel partners shows that extras, such as spa passes or dog charges, can add 16% in booking revenue at the point of reservation. When guests can curate their own experiences from spa, dining and facilities as part of the online booking journey, Average Order Value (AOV) can increase by up to 95%. At properties selling both rooms and spa services, AOV rose by an average of 44%, from €429 to €617.

For Ireland, this matters because many of the country’s highest-value tourism segments are experience-led.

Take golf. Fáilte Ireland estimated that over 220,000 international golfers visit Ireland each year, with golf tourism worth more than €300 million annually. Golf visitors also typically spend three times more than the average leisure tourist. This is exactly the type of traveller luxury hotels should be merchandising to before arrival, not waiting to upsell at reception. A golfer booking a stay should be able to see relevant tee times, dining options, spa recovery treatments, private transfers, packed lunches or group experiences as part of one connected journey.

The same principle applies to wellness. A guest booking a spa hotel isn’t simply after a bed to sleep on; they’re buying a version of how they want to feel during and after the stay. If treatments, spa facilities, classes, dining and upgrades are bookable only after the room is confirmed, or worse, only by phone or email, the hotel is creating friction at the point where it should be increasing value.

This is important for independent hotels, which often have the strongest stories but not always the same commercial infrastructure as larger groups. Ireland’s independent luxury sector is full of character. There are manor houses, coastal retreats, city-centre icons, golf resorts, castle hotels and destination restaurants. Individuality is an advantage, but it alone doesn’t guarantee revenue.

If an experience can’t be seen, it can’t be sold. If it can’t be booked, it can’t be yielded. If it can’t be measured, it can’t be optimised.

This requires a shift in mindset. Hotels need to stop treating occupancy, ADR and RevPAR as the full picture of performance. RevPAR still matters, not least because banks, investors and institutions continue to use it as a benchmark. But it doesn’t tell hoteliers enough about profitability. A room can be sold at a strong rate while the wider business still misses opportunities to drive higher-margin spend across dining, spa, golf, wellness or activities.

The more useful question is not only what revenue each available room generates, but what profit the whole property generates. That means looking more closely at metrics such as Gross Operating Profit Per Available Room (GOPPAR), EBITDA, total guest value, basket size, and attach rate. 

And it isn’t about charging guests for everything. It’s about giving them visibility, choice and certainty. Guests increasingly want to plan the moments that make a trip memorable. They want the dinner table secured at a specific time, the spa treatment confirmed, the golf arranged, the dog welcomed, and the stay more personalised to their desires. When those options are presented clearly and conveniently, guests are often happy to spend more because the value is obvious.

The commercial challenge now for Ireland’s luxury hotels is ensuring they’re not selling experiences too late, too manually or not at all. The room may start the booking. But it shouldn’t define the full revenue opportunity. The whole stay should be treated as a product, with every high-value experience made as easy to buy as the room itself.

by Khristina Quigley ; Head of Payments & Partnerships Director, Journey