The glitzy Morrison hotel on Dublin's quays, where I learned to make (and drink) copious cocktails as a catering student more than 15 years ago, has discarded the final vestiges of its tie-up with Martinez Hotels & Resorts, its former operating company, which was sacked by its owner, Elena Baturina, last year.
Baturina, a billionaire who is Russia’s richest woman, fell out with the Austrian-based Martinez early last year in a financial dispute.
She fired it from the four European hotels it ran on her behalf.
She told me at the time she was in talks with Interstate to take over the operating contracts, but it appears that she has entrusted the job of formally operating the Morrison to its local management team, led by general manager Patrick Joyce.
Martinez, the old operating company on whose board Joyce now sits, this month changed its name to Swift Row, a nod to the Swift’s Row strip off the quays where the Morrison’s front door is located.
Dublin hotel room rates, according to a report this week, are among the fastest- growing in Europe, so it looks like Baturina has made a savvy bet, having spent more than €20 million on the Morrison in 2012.
Profitability is surely only around the corner for the Dublin hotel. Baturina’s Austrian hotels have also trimmed their losses since she sacked Martinez, according to a recent note from her London office.
Baturina, who is married to a well-connected former mayor of Moscow, recently invested in renewable energy through her company Inteco Beteiligungs, which also owns the Morrison.
If only she could find a way to harness the hot air and windbaggery of some of the princess types who frequent the Morrison, she’d be on to something.