Leading Mayo hotel unveil major investment plans

A LANDMARK hotel in Westport is looking to extend its facilities.

Planning permission has been sought by Hotel Westport for a three-storey extension of 3,202 sqm to the west of the existing hotel and north of the kitchen and dining room.

The extension will comprise of a new entrance lobby and reception, restaurant/lounge spaces, function rooms and ancillary spaces, meeting room, and staff welfare facilities.

The development will result in an increase in the existing hotel ground floor area from 8,850sqm to 11,055sqm, but there will be no change in the total number of bedrooms.

Constructed in the 1970s, the proposal seeks to modernise and enhance function and guest experience spaces, improving circulation routes between the multiple guest and staff functions within the building, and refurbish back of house functions to meet all current national and international hospitality standards and maximise opportunities for future potential connections to the Westport Demesne and back to Westport town.

The hotel site forms part of the historic landscape associated with Westport House, which was previously severed from the surviving demesne.

Documentation submitted to planners says the reintegration of the hotel into the demesne, which will be a key economic driver for the estate, has offered a chance to help to reverse some of the impacts of the historic encroachment.

The works, it was submitted, would improve and enhance the tourism and recreational asset base and attractiveness of Westport, supporting employment and economic development, and enhancing the design and landscape setting of the existing hotel.