Free hotel nights snapped up

Date Published: 12-Jan-2010

AN initiative by 30 Galway hotels to offer 2,010 free nights in a bid to attract more Irish holidaymakers to the city has been hailed as a huge success – one city hotel was sold out of its free nights just 20 minutes after they went on offer online.

In a major drive to drum-up tourism business in the city this month, 30 city hotels offered 2,010 rooms free of charge to holiday-makers on a first-come, first served basis for the month of January to celebrate the opening of the Galway to Dublin motorway.

The initiative was launched last Thursday and almost all of the free rooms have already been snapped-up. The 30 hotels signed-up to the initiative each offered three or four bedrooms free of charge every night for the remainder of January.

The Meyrick Hotel in Eyre Square proved to be extremely popular and its quota of free nights were all booked after just 20 minutes of them going ‘live’ on the internet.

Most of the other city hotels’ free nights were also snapped up by Thursday night and Friday although there are some free nights left at hotels in the county and on the outskirts of the city.

People from Dublin, Mayo and Donegal made up the majority of those who are availing of the free rooms.

Paul Gill, Chairman of IHF, Galway branch, said the initiative has been a big success, particularly from a marketing point of view in the capital.

“They are nearly all gone as of Monday morning. There are only four or five hotels left who have any free nights remaining. Last year was a really tough year and we are going to have to work twice as hard this year to maintain last year’s levels because there will be no Volvo Ocean Race to give hotels a boost.

“This has been brilliant in terms of marketing and it was in direct competition to the travel agents advertising foreign holidays – we are saying, holiday in Galway and putting Galway out there as a destination,” said Mr Gill.

If you’re lucky you may still be able to get one of those free nights on www.irelandhotels.com.