Dublin’s five star Marker Hotel – now known as Anantara The Marker Hotel – is pushing into the upper end of the luxury market having almost completed a multi-million euro upgrade of the property

Although 60pc of its business comes from the corporate market, general manager Michael Davern, a former CEO of the K Club, said the hotel has ambitious plans for the leisure market. 

The Anantara brand was first established in Thailand and has been introduced by the hotel’s new owners, German real estate investment group Deka Immobilien.

Davern expects this to help the hotel tap in to the lucrative Asian market, as well as reach international travellers who regularly stay in the Anantara properties. The brand is growing its presence in Europe with locations in Rome, Budapest and Amsterdam.

“Anantara is a brand that will be very, very recognised by discerning travellers around Asia, so it makes us very appealing to some of those markets now,” he said.

Davern said that the top end of the hotel market in Dublin was very competitive and that Anantara encouraged local innovation and an independent approach to luxury. “It’s almost being entrepreneurial and saying if it was my business, what would would I be doing. I come from a fundamentally independent luxury hotel background and that’s what they seek.”

Davern said 2018 and 2019 were extremely strong years for the hotel sector and that the industry is steadily recovering to pre-Covid levels. He said leisure has been strong. “But corporate travel isn’t back to the level it was. People are working from home and there have been a number of little shocks in the corporate sector – interest rates rising, the tech sector, war in the Ukraine.”

He said during the pandemic some companies had realised there were savings to be made in international travel, although in-person events are now on the rise again.  

Anantara The Marker, which has a spa and swimming pool, is being pitched now as an ‘urban retreat’. The hotel tends to appeal to a slightly younger, tech-savvy clientele than some of its rival five star properties in the city. 

Davern said that Anantara is very much focused on experiential travel and so the Marker has now developed a number of high end ‘experiences’ for clients. These include going out on a fishing boat with head chef Gareth Mullins and seeing how smoked salmon is cured before retuning to the hotel to learn how to make brown bread. “Its about creating memorable experiences with the people and expertise that you have.”

Among the upgrades has been an overhaul of the restaurant. As part of a sustainability drive, new dishes for breakfast include a bread and butter pudding using left-over bread. It has become one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes. There has been an investment in the restaurant decor and layout with new additions such as a meat ageing fridge.  

The hotel’s electrical and mechanical functions have been upgraded in all rooms to make them more efficient, such as the chillers for air conditioning. Much of this work was done during quieter periods for the business during the pandemic.

The entrance to the hotel has been redeveloped to replace sliding doors with a heat-saving alternative.

Deka Immobilien paid around €130m for the hotel in September 2019.