So who would be best to have bought the Caiseal Mara?
The Caiseal Mara was the heartbeat of the town. All of those booked into it would have spent money in the town and boosted business. Even in winter busloads of people would come in and spend a night or a few days in town.
Every Euro brought into a town circulates an average of 6 times giving an average of 6 people or businesses the benefit of it – and this is new money brought into the town.
From what I’m being told by some local business people, the town is picking up nicely – but from low levels and well below the peak levels.
The Caiseal Mara brings in a lot of new money and so gives the town a big boost. The town was hit very badly when it closed.
Best People
The very best people to have bought the Caiseal Mara are people who know the hotel business, that have experience of it and know which travel operators to contact.
Even better would be people who have had experience of working or running this hotel in the past. Even better would be people with recent experience of running this hotel in some capacity – and the higher up the better. They may also have access to the website and domain name and the online booking system.
One problem with running a hotel after having borrowed money to buy and do it up is that the interest payments back to the bank have a drag on the profitability of a business. Once that business goes into administration or liquidation the debts go away with it.
A fresh business can be started up without the burden of debts to drag it down.
Rumours
As many of you know, the rumours about the town are saying that the new owners had connections to the business in the recent past. If this were the case it would be good for Moville. They know the business inside out. They could hit the ground running and could contact the travel operators that they dealt with before.
They would be much more able to run the business profitably, without the debts and interest payments, and could hire many people from the town in all sorts of capacities, some of whom worked there before. I think there used to be 20 to 30 people who used to work there which must be a major percentage of the Moville workforce.
All those people who would be working there again would be spending money in the town and as each Euro brought into the town would be spent an average of 6 times this. It would be a major, major boost to Moville’s economy.
Beware
However, there are two things I would say here.
Firstly, the deal isn’t likely to go through very quickly. As other businesses in the town have found it the law works very slowly and it could be next summer, if then, that it reopens.
Secondly, they say that there is no smoke without fire. However, in Moville there is plenty of smoke without fire. Look at all the people who are supposed to have bought various pubs and hotels about the town that are still unsold.
It would be very good news for Moville if the rumours are true. However, the vast majority of rumours in Moville turn out to be untrue – so don’t count your chickens yet.