The Doyle Collection is a group of luxury hotels previously known as Jurys Doyle Hotels. The collection consists of eleven luxury hotels in six major international cities across Ireland, the UK and the USA.
Re-brand
In December 8, Jurys Doyle Hotels became The Doyle Collection and announced the withdrawal of the Jurys Doyle brand
from the market. This re-branding process involves the renaming and re-launch of each hotel within the group. The re-brand is the culmination of an ongoing capital investment programme of more than Euro 200 million, which involved a complete refurbishment of nine of the 11 Doyle Collection properties, as well as repositioning the hotel group into the luxury hotels category.
History
The introduction of The Doyle Collection marks the next stage in the evolution of the company since legendary hotelier Pascal Vincent Doyle (PV Doyle) opened his first hotel, the Montrose, in Dublin in 1964. In 1999 Jurys acquired Doyle Hotels and became the Jurys Doyle Hotel Group, the largest hotel group in Ireland.
Key Dates
1839: William Jury opens his commercial lodgings in Dublin, Ireland.
1866: After Jury becomes a partner in a new Shelbourne Hotel, he sells his original hotel to his cousin Henry James Jury, who expands the property, then called Commercial and Family Hotel, and later Jurys Hotel.
1918: Jurys Hotel is requisitioned by the British army during Ireland's War of Independence.
1924: Jurys Hotel is acquired by a group of businessmen.
1963: The hotel adds a new 80-room wing.
1964: Developer Pascal Vincent Doyle opens his first hotel, The Montrose, in Dublin.
1966: Doyle opens two more hotels in Dublin.
1969: Doyle adds a fourth Dublin hotel.
1970: Jurys adds a new hotel in Westport.
1971: Jurys opens a new hotel in Sligo.
1972: Jurys sells off its properties and reforms as a new company in order to acquire three hotels in Dublin, Cork, and Limerick; Doyle opens Burlington Hotel.
1977: Doyle opens five-star Berkeley Court Hotel.
1984: Doyle moves into London with the acquisition of Clifton Ford Hotel; he also acquires two hotels in Washington, D.C.
1986: Jurys goes public on the Irish Stock Exchange.
1991: Jurys enters the United Kingdom with the purchase of a hotel in Glasgow.
1997: Doyle acquires Dupont Plaza in Washington, D.C., and begins construction on The Washington Hotel (opened in 1999).
1999: Jurys acquires Doyle and becomes Jurys Doyle Hotel Group, the largest in Ireland.
2002: The company begins selling off three-star properties to focus on four- and five-star hotels. In 2002, the company began a shift toward higher-margin properties, beginning a sell-off of many of its three-star locations in favor of refocusing its hotels portfolio around four- and five-star properties. At the same time, Jurys Doyle continued its expansion into the United Kingdom, where the company had targeted some 60 cities as potential future markets, opening the Jurys Inn Croydon in London in 2002 and the Jurys Inn Newcastle and Jurys Inn Glasgow in 2003.
By then, Jurys Doyle had already boosted its number of rooms to nearly 6,500, and its revenues had climbed to EUR 257 million ($303 million). The company had also begun a new expansion drive, with six new properties in development at the beginning of 2004, two of which, the Jurys Inn Leeds and the Jurys Inn Chelsea opened in February and March of that year. Other properties slated for opening included a new hotel in Dublin's Parnell Street, a hotel serving London Heathrow, and an entry into Southampton slated for 2005.
Jurys Doyle also looked forward to its first extension beyond Washington, D.C., in the United States, as it prepared for the opening of the new four-star Jurys Boston Hotel, in 2004. In 2007 The Jurys Inn chain of 20 hotels in Ireland and the UK were put up for sale. Irish real estate investment firm Quinlan Private agreed to buy the 20 Jurys Inn budget hotels for 1.165 billion euros (792.6 million pounds) cash, paying one of the highest premiums for such a chain in recent history.
Future
PV Doyle’s daughters Bernie Gallagher (Chairman), Anne Roach and Eileen Monaghan (Director) remain board members of The Doyle Collection along with Walter Beatty (Director).
Bill Walshe is chief executive of The Doyle Collection. Formerly Chief Marketing Officer of Jumeirah, the Dubai based luxury hospitality group, he is currently leading The Doyle Collection portfolio through its comprehensive, upscale repositioning.
The Doyle Collection consists of 11 luxury hotels, in six cities:
Dublin:
• The Westbury Hotel (Freehold)
• The Croke Park Hotel (Leasehold)
Cork:
• The Cork Hotel (Leasehold)
London City Hotels:
• The Marylebone (Freehold)
• The Bloomsbury Hotel (Freehold)
• The Kensington Hotel (Freehold)
Bristol Hotels:
• The Bristol Hotel (Freehold)
Boston Hotels:
• The Back Bay Hotel (Leasehold)
Washington Hotels:
• The Normandy Hotel (Freehold)
• The Dupont Hotel (Freehold)
• The Courtyard by Marriot Northwest (Freehold)
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