Situated on the outskirts of the town of Kenmare, Co Kerry, the Kenmare Bay Hotel & Resort is your home away from home with 130 beautifully designed bedrooms and 30 self-catering holiday homes. Hotel and Tourism Ireland touched base with General Manager Andrew Rees to hear all about this perfectly situated, multi award-winning hotel which has plans for further renovations next year.
With stunning picturesque views, the Kenmare Bay Hotel & Resort is an exceptional property which has an excellent reputation when it comes to its service.
First built in 1974, the hotel has 130 bedrooms, along with 30 self-catering holiday homes and operates with a team of 100 staff.
It’s an award-winning wedding reception venue and its facilities include a superb leisure centre which is has an 18.5 metre swimming pool, children’s pool, jacuzzi, steam room & sauna and a fully equipped gym & weights room.
When it comes to dining options, ‘The Bay Bistro’ has undergone a remarkable transformation in recent times and, as a result, now boasts cosy corners and intimate nooks, inviting guests to indulge in a culinary journey.
General Manager at the Kenmare Bay Hotel, Andrew Rees describes the entire property as “a magical place”, and the origins of its transformation can be traced back to just over two decades ago when Riobard Lyne first acquired the hotel based along the Sneem Road.
“Riobard Lyne bought the property in 2004 and he then did a major renovation project. So, he did a leisure centre, which is an 18.5 metre pool, steam room, jacuzzi, sauna, full gym with treatment facilities,” Andrew outlined.
“He then did a remodel of the central part of the hotel, which was a new banquet suite for 350 guests, a new restaurant, a new reception and 44 new bedrooms, including two suites.
“So, the number of rooms in the hotel moved up to 130 bedrooms by 2006. He then put in 30 self-catering holiday homes, so 16 of those are a four-star finish three-bedroom holiday homes.
“Then he added on another 14 five-star finish luxury lodges that are on the top half of the property.”
Mr Lyne, who has strong roots in Kilgarvan, Co Kerry, isn’t resting on past laurels either, as he envisions a greener future for the hotel, aligning with the global shift toward sustainability.
Since his takeover, the market segment at the Kenmare Bay Hotel has been made up of both national and international tours, a considerable wedding market which is within a 100km radius of Kenmare, predominately in Cork, and, of course, leisure.
“We’re a very popular destination for cycling, car tours, walking groups and so on – golfing is very popular in the area as well,” said the hotel’s GM.
“We’re the largest hotel in Kenmare, having the equivalent of the 130 rooms plus the 30 self-catering, you could almost say we’re a 200 roomed property. We run a crew of 100, so we’re the largest employer in the area and, in our busy time, we would have anything up to 400 guests on the property.
“So, that is a huge economic benefit to Kenmare Town because about 50% of our guests each night would be entertaining and shopping in Kenmare. Also, from a community perspective, we’re very involved.
“There are numerous events each year that we’re involved with and we’re very involved with the GAA team here in Kenmare and actually sponsor the senior team with complimentary membership to our leisure centre for them to keep fit and healthy.
“We also sponsor the GAA U15s in Kilgarvan with their home kit, and have an involvement with Kenmare FC. Probably our biggest contribution to our community is our swim program in our Leisure Centre.
“We would have one to one swimming instruction and what we call our swim academy, which is taking people from Level 1 to Level 8 with the Irish Swim Association. Then we also have the Kenmare Bay Swim Club, which has won multiple regional and national medals across a wide range of age groups.”
A Dublin native himself, Andrew first joined the team in Kenmare back in 2008 after having built up more than a quarter century’s experience in the hospitality industry.
Between the years of 1980 and 2004, he worked in 15 hotels in six different countries before returning back to Ireland in ‘04 and, four years later, he’d join the team at the Kenmare Bay Hotel.
As it stands, Andrew has worked for 35 years in total as a Hotel General Manager and, over the course of that period, is also experienced in project management when it comes to general builds and renovations.
Today, he heads up a multiple award-winning team in Kenmare, with some of the most recent success for the hotel having come at the prestigious Irish Hotel Awards this past October.
The Kenmare Bay Hotel was victorious in the ‘Overall Irish Self-Catering Property of the Year’ category, while other gongs in 2024 included ‘Wedding Venue of the Year’ by Brides of Munster and also ‘Wedding Venue of the Year’ 2024 with WeddingDates.ie.
Weddings are the heartbeat of this hotel and, being recognised as one of Kerry’s top wedding venues, it’s home to a team, a service and a fabulous setting that will make your big day a dream come true.
Being close to the West Cork border and situated on the Beara Peninsula, the Kenmare Bay Hotel is the ideal destination in the south west of Ireland for a couple’s big day.
As for what’s ahead for the Kenmare Bay Hotel, Andrew is happy to report that the wheels are in motion for further renovation that will eventually bring the hotel up to a four-star status.
“Once we got over Covid, we started a new phase of renovation. So, we’re currently a three-star hotel and we’re on a four-star journey,” he said.
“The four-star journey is broken into two parts. Part A is that from 2023 to 2024, we renovated 33 of our bedrooms to four-star and renovated our restaurant to ‘The Bay Bistro’ and that opened in April of last year. It’s really a phenomenal bistro.
“So, that was the winter project last year and this winter now we’ve done a renovation to our whole entrance. In other words, to our foyer and we’ve also created a guest wedding garden on the property.
“We’re renovating our two suites to a four-star standard and they will be completed soon. Then we’re doing a renovation in our Courtyard bar to bring it to four stars.
“The last phase will be a 50-room renovation to four stars, which will happen this winter coming into next summer (2026).”
Indeed, the next 12 months or so are set to see further transformation at the Kenmare Bay Hotel in its journey towards becoming a four-star property.
It’s also set to continue in its commitment towards “going greener”, with the objective being to achieve a zero-carbon footprint by the end of next year.
“In the road to green, in 2024 we put in 44 EV charging units on the property. That makes the hotel with the greatest number of EV charging units in Ireland and we actually offer complimentary charging overnight,” said Andrew.
“So, it’s sort of like ‘Refresh yourself and recharge your car’. The 30 self-catering units are now all solar electricity and they’re also air to water. So, that’s a very forward commitment to get us greener.
“Within the hotel, we’ve changed all of our lighting infrastructure to LED efficient lighting systems and then the next part of the project is we’re going to be doing a bio-mass unit for the Leisure Centre.
“Then we’re going solar on the main hotel with a solar carpark to reduce our use of electricity off the grid. We’re also going to be putting in air to water in the main complex of the hotel so we’re not reliant on heating oil. Once that process is complete, we’ll then be as close to a zero-carbon footprint as you can get and, also, by late 2026 we’ll be a plastic free hotel as well.”
So, all of that considered, the burning question is what has been the secret behind the Kenmare Bay Hotel’s success to date?
With origins dating back more than five decades ago, how has it continued to deliver on its commitment to excellence and, most important of all, kept its guests walking through the doors?
For Andrew, he cites a combination of different factors as being behind this hotel’s continued success.
“I think I’ll step back and say that, firstly, they choose Kenmare as a destination itself because it’s historically well-known as being very friendly and welcoming,” he pointed out.
“It’s also known for its fine pubs and restaurants and real Irish culture, arts and crafts, so Kenmare is the destination and it has so many other businesses as well. The town itself has a walking club, a cycling club, so it’s a destination within itself.
“After that, why do they choose the Kenmare Bay Hotel? Obviously, from a tour point of view, because it’s on the Ring of Kerry and it’s famous in itself. For weddings, because the destination is within 40-60km of Cork and it’s just the whole picturesqueness of Kenmare for a wedding to be held.
“From an Irish leisure point of view, it’s to do with all of what guests can do. Particularly to the hotel, we’re an 800-metre walk into town on a private walkway and our friendliness and our service is exceptional. I mean one can refer to Booking.com as a guideline, we score over 9.3 for our staff service and friendliness. It’s a real sort of Irishness in friendliness.
“Our food is exceptional. Bobby O’Donohoe our Executive Chef is amongst the top chefs in Ireland.”
The GM concluded: “My core team has been with me over 10 years and that has a level of passion, loyalty and commitment. It’s not just a career, it’s a life balance. So, from a General Manager’s point of view, it’s one of my beliefs that anybody who is working in my team there’s a life balance.
“Back in the day, if you were to get anywhere in a hotel, you’d work 60-70 hours a week and I have a mantra that I’d rather have 100% at eight hours than 70% at 10 hours. So, there’s a very good life balance within my team which projects across to the customer’s experience.”
That’s fantastic to hear.
Kenmare Bay Hotel & Resort
Sneem Road,
Kenmare,
Co Kerry (V93 HY28)
Tel: +353 (0)64 667 9300
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.kenmarebayhotel.com
This article was published in Hotel & Tourism Magazine, Summer 2025, Vol 1 No 1
featured, Kenmare Bay Hotel & Resort
