HOTEL CLOSURES

A NAMA source has told The Sunday Tribune that the asset management agency could close down hotels under its watch if they aren’t making enough money.

NAMA is taking over €800 million in loans secured against Irish hotels and the NAMA source told the Tribune that “it may be better for some hotels to shut rather than draining developers’ resources.”Many struggling hotels are staying open purely to avoid the repayment of tax breaks earned when they were built.

And the NAMA source had ominous words for hotel workers.

“If the borrower has a hotel and it doesn’t have sufficient cashflow to keep it going and its cost is greater than its cash… what we are saying is, “Why are you keeping this place open? Would it not be cheaper to close it down?”