By Éibhir Mulqueen, Midwest Correspondent
The Irish Times
Friday, July 28, 2000
HOTELS: The Ennis-based Lynch Hotels Group has taken over the management of the four-star Galway Bay Golf and Country
Club Hotel and clubhouse at Renvyle, near Oranmore in Co Galway as part of an expansion programme.
Details of the deal, believed to be a long-term lease, were not disclosed but Mr Michael Lynch, group managing
director of the family company, said it was part of a marketing and development strategy along the west coast.
The deal to manage the 92-bedroom hotel was made with Rinville Management Company whose directors are the Mayobased
building contractor, Sean Mulryan, the Co Galway-based businessman and racehorse owner, Mr Herbert Stanley, and
Mr Christy O'Connor jnr who designed the golf course.
Mr Hugh Coyle has been appointed general manager of the hotel. He previously managed the Metropole Hotel in Cork
and the Renvyle House Hotel in Connemara.
The Lynch Hotel Group is the biggest hotel operator in the west, with six hotels containing 592 bedrooms. Last
July, it entered the Co Galway market when it purchased Hayden's Hotel in Ballinasloe. It also owns the West County
Hotel, the Clare Inn and the Ocean Cove Hotel in Co Clare, and the South Court Hotel, in Limerick, is being extended
to include another 60 bedrooms and a conference centre. Mr Lynch said the intention was to expand to eight hotels
by next year.
"As a group we tend to be very self sufficient. We have our own tour operating business and recruitment agency".
He said that group the intention of the group in the medium term was intended to expand in the west in the medium
term. "We would like to be in Dublin at some stage," he added.
The business was founded by his parents, Michael and Christina, set up the West County Hotel in Ennis in 1968 which
now has 152 bedrooms. "We grew from two hotels to three hotels in 1998, and we grew from three hotels to five
hotels last year," Mr Lynch said.
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