Craic On

Caiseal Mara

We have had it confirmed,, by the Auctioneers in Dublin that when the Caiseal Mara was sold last week it was the property alone that was sold and that neither the hotel’s website nor the domain name of the website, www.CaisealMaraHotel.com, was included in the package for sale.

Indeed, when I called them they were a bit dumbfounded and I don’t think it even crossed their mind to make sure that the website and domain name were included in the package. However, they told me that they definitely didn’t include it in the sale and they told me that it was up to the buyer to sort that out.

Big Problem

That may mean that the buyer has had his or her feet cut from under them – or are open to being forced to buy the website and domain name from the current owners at an extravagant price.

The domain name is even more important than the website – and someone called Joe Byrne in Donegal Town owns it.

This will be a huge blow to the new owners. Owning the website would mean that they could be up and running quickly. They could simply put an announcement up on the website saying “We are open for business from X Date and are taking bookings for weddings, functions etc.”

They can’t do that if they don’t have control of the website and domain name – and they don’t.

Built Up Over Years

There will be dozens of links to the Caiseal Mara website from travel websites all over the world. They will have built these links up over years to get them customers.

Also, when you type in Caiseal Mara or even Moville Hotel the hotel’s website comes up in Google. That is invaluable to them for getting new customers.

If the new owners don’t have control of that (and they don’t) it will be a big blow to them. It means they will have a standing start rather than a running start. It means they’ll have to rebuild the business from scratch.

That’s a shame and it is a problem for Moville and not just the new owners as the Caiseal Mara hotel is the heartbeat of Moville.