Dale Ebbitt, Manager of the Enniskillen Hotel gkfh38
IN TIMES of recession, with businesses closing and the customer’s purse strings tighter than ever before it was considered by some as madness to add another hotel to the well-stocked Fermanagh market, but one year on and The Enniskillen Hotel is defying the downturn.
The Enniskillen Hotel opened on December 12, 2012 and hotel manager Dale Ebbit is happy to say they are silencing the critics.
“I think we have definitely proved a few people wrong, from my background and working with the Cadden family we knew this could work and it has been a hugely successful year.
“Plenty of research was done before the hotel opened and there was a market and we’re glad to have been able to infiltrate that.”
Dale explained that everything seemed to fall into place this year, with a couple of unexpected events helping to keep the hotel busy throughout the year.
“We had Blandings in for a month, Miss Julie for a month and the G8 on top of that. It all helped, we couldn’t have predicted it, all these major events coming to the county.”
A ‘local hotel for local people’ is how Dale describes the Enniskillen Hotel, with most of the staff born and bred in Fermanagh.
“It is a big saving grace that nearly all our staff are local. They are from Enniskillen or Belcoo, they are local people and friendly staff and I think that’s what people want to see when they visit, they want the Fermanagh experience.
“We employed for personality, not for experience and in fact a lot of our staff did not have any hotel experience, but we trained them up. We have around 30 people working in the hotel, we’re a tight-knit group and that’s a big thing.”
Have they cracked it in a year? No, but it’s a good start.
“I think there’s still work to do, but I think the hotel is starting to come to the forefront of people’s minds.
“We have six party nights this year, five of them have been as good as sold, while the other was quieter as it was the first of the season. Last year we had two so it has been a huge development in 12 months.
“It has been really, really successful, I couldn’t have imagined the response we have got from the people and we’re all very grateful.”
As for his own year Dale admits it has been ‘tough’, but ‘really exciting’.
“I am excited about heading into the new year, we as a hotel are still growing and a lot of focus in January will be on maintaining and improving the standards we have set so far. We started the hotel a bit different and we want to continue being a bit different, but the main thing is ensuring the people keep coming back.”
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