Ballyfin Hotel Losses Increase Fourfold

Losses at the historic Ballyfin Demesne Hotel in County Laois grew fourfold into 2024, according to the companys’ latest filings, with that year’s turnover standing at €6,614, 878, down more than €240000 from the previous year.

First constructed in 1826 as a private home for the wealthy landowning Coote family, the house was later run as a Patrician Brother boarding school for boy for 80 years from --- 1928 to 2008 – but was bought (in 2001) and eventually renovated into a Hotel by the Chicago-based Krehbiel family.

The purchase was originally met with dismay locally; countless locals had attended the boarding school in its decades of service, and the grounds were open to the public to engage in coarse fishing or conduct walks.

The new owners were Fred Krehbiel, who was the founder and co-chair of the multinational electronic business, Molex, which at the time had a plant in Shannon, and his wife Kay, who hailed from Northern Kerry. Having already owned property in Kerry, the Krehbiels were said to have been keen to find and restore a significant Irish house.

After a decade of restoration, the house reopened as the 20-room luxury hotel it is today, where breakfast costs between €1580 and €2890.

However, over fifteen years on, the parent company has now incurred a loss after tax of €389,281 in the year, which was more than four times the €90,155 it shipped in 2023.

The fall in revenue is mostly down to a drop in turnover from the accommodation side of the business; in 2024, it generated just over €4 million there, down from just under €4.3 million in 2023. The amount it spent on staff also jumped; employing 96 people – up from 93 – which represented a €300,000 increase in expenditure.