With more than 700 weddings under its belt The Lady Gregory hotel, conference, and leisure club in Gort has become synonymous with top quality food and traditional friendly hospitality, where guests are made to feel at home, and their stay made even more special with the top class service and facilities provided.
Established in December 1998 by Michael O’Grady of O’Grady Construction, the hotel located on the Ennis Road began with just 48 bedrooms and a conference room. To further reinforce The Lady Gregory’s deep connection with the local community and its hinterlands a further investment was made by the O’Grady family in 2007 with the result that the hotel now has 87 en-suite bedrooms and the Swan Leisure Club, providing even more facilities, not just to meet the needs of guests but of the local people too. The impressive leisure club, which benefited from an investment of €200,000 in high tech gym equipment and boasts an 18 metre indoor heated swimming pool as well as luxurious thermal suites and the Claddagh Heart beauty salon, has had a huge impact on the business of the hotel, significantly improving the wedding packages on offer, helping to attract new business in the form of family and leisure breaks, and providing top quality facilities to the people in the locality. Indeed, as one of the biggest employers in the south Galway region The Lady Gregory Hotel and Swan Leisure Club places a lot of importance on supporting the local community by constantly looking at innovative ways to attract new business not only to the hotel but also into the town of Gort itself.
With incredibly easy access from Galway city, Ennis in Clare, and Limerick city it is no wonder that The Lady Gregory is a popular choice with visitors as it is situated in the vibrant town of Gort and surrounded by many attractions including the beautiful Burren, Coole Park, Thoor Ballylee, and the Cliffs of Moher. Indeed, after a day of exploring there is nothing more relaxing than to enjoy a drink in the hotel’s traditional style Jack B Yeats bar and a delicious bite to eat in the exquisite Copper Beech restaurant. Greeted by the friendly staff at the hotel’s front desk, where a Tripadvisor certificate of excellence for 2011 is proudly displayed, reassurance is guaranteed right from the very start with the high standard of the bedrooms and the hospitality shown throughout a guest’s stay proving why The Lady Gregory has gained such an impressive reputation.
General manager Brian Morrissey, who has been with the hotel for more than 12 years, explained: “The expansion was out of demand because although we’ve always been able to cater for weddings for up to 300 people, we were not able to accommodate more than 80 guests staying in the hotel. So we were losing revenue there. Since the expansion we still cater for weddings of up to 300 people but we can now sleep up to 190 guests. The leisure centre has been an addition to our services to encourage people to stay for two nights and also help sell more weddings. There are now 87 bedrooms, all en-suite; five bedrooms would be what are termed executive bedrooms. There is a main function room for weddings and conferences, and then four syndicate meeting rooms. There is also the Jack B Yeats bar and the Copper Beach restaurant - inspiration for names comes from the nearby Coole Park, even our meeting rooms are named after poets.
“There is a good family influence here, a real hands-on approach, there is a lot of pride shown in the hotel and the local area. When we hold a wedding, there are always three managers on hand, right through from start to finish. That relationship built in the initial enquiry is built on right through to the end of the wedding. That’s a commitment we make. We’re almost like a wedding planner, we provide a service that gives peace of mind and reassurance. Every wedding is treated like the first. We have done up to 700 weddings since 1998, but we’re never complacent. We don’t sit on our achievements, we want to keep moving. Each day is a new day and we will continue to offer great services and hospitality.”
Over the past few years The Lady Gregory has certainly had to ‘move with the times’ as they say, having had to not only contend with the economic downturn but also increasing competition and the construction of the Gort bypass. The major extension and the beautiful Swan Leisure Club played a huge role in helping The Lady Gregory keep ahead of the competition by allowing it to provide a more tailored and individual wedding package and tranforming it into a destination hotel. “We want to help brides and grooms make their own package, packages that are personalised and that take their budgets into account... We did have reservations about the bypass, but we just had to change our strategy, we had to become a destination hotel. Although the bypass did affect the carvery trade, the bedroom business is actually up. If we dealt with it in a negative way we would be going backwards. We re-focused our offerings for wedding customers and corporate, to ensure the footfall we needed to become a destination hotel, to entice people to stay two or three nights. We have a lot of weddings from Clare now, now that the Ennis bypass is extended to Gort it takes just 20 to 25 minutes to get to us. The bypass has opened up a whole new customer base. We focused on the positives and moved forward and now there has been a growth in business. The Lady Gregory is now renowned for its food, service, the hospitaility shown by the staff, and its leisure facilities,” said Mr Morrissey.
It is little wonder that the Swan Leisure Club has helped to make such an impact not only on the overall business of the adjoining hotel but for local customers. Overseeing the fantastic facilites at the leisure club is Olivia O’Grady, a daughter-in-law to owner Michael O’Grady, who has been involved in the hotel since the first day of construction.
“When we were extending the hotel’s bedrooms Michael saw that a leisure centre was needed to boost the hotel and the town, to make it an attraction for families with children. The nearest facilities with a pool had been Ennis and Oranmore. So the leisure centre was built to complement what was here previously. It is an attraction for people booking, it was really needed. The leisure club has 800 members now - we have members from Loughrea, and Oranmore, lots of members from the town.
“There’s a great team here in the leisure club. We offer something different, the personal touch, making sure members are using the facilities in the best possible way. Our instructors do one to one personalised training programmes, making sure customers are making full use of their membership. You can meet an instructor every month, get encouragement, as well as nutritional advice, and have personalised programmes done up. There was a good investment made in the gym equipment, there were no half measures taken, ensuring high quality for your membership. With the membership there are also classes which include swimming for adults and children, and aqua-aerobics, and for 2012 we want to focus on giving members even more value by holding classes for boot camp as well as mother and toddler groups, and Pilates,” said Olivia.
The Swan Leisure Club offers memberships to suit all, from six months to 12 months, but it is not only the high-tech gym equipment, complete with TV and heart rate monitors, and the pristine pool, Jacuzzi, whirlpool, and heated reclining seats that are an attraction, there is also the added bonus of the wonderful thermal suites which will help members really relax and have a bit of well deserved pampering. The thermal suites comprise The Salt Grotto, the Herb Sauna, Floral Steam Room, the Health Shower, and the Crystal Steam Room.
There is just so much on offer here at The Lady Gregory and Swan Leisure Club with not only guests availing of the splendid hospitality but also the local community who regularly enjoy the entertainment provided every weekend, and of course the culinary delights of the great value dinner and lunch options. If you would like to find out for yourself the array of services and facilities provided then join The Lady Gregory Hotel and Swan Leisure Club for its open day on January 19 from 10am to 10pm.
For further information contact The Lady Gregory Hotel, Ennis Road, Gort, on 091 632333
or email [email protected] and for the
Swan Leisure Club contact 091 647947.
Alternatively log onto www.ladygregoryhotel.ie
