Irish hotel says sorry for offering rooms for €2 a night

Hotel criticised for bypassing coronavirus restrictions with promotional offer

The Beach Hotel offered guests a room for €2 a night. Google 

An Irish hotel has apologised after offering rooms for €2 ($2.33) a night so people could have a meal indoors despite coronavirus restrictions making it illegal.

The Beach Hotel in the Irish county of Donegal posted the promotional offer on its Facebook page last Friday.

It came on the day the chief medical officers from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland pleaded with people to “use common sense” and avoid non-essential travel to the area after a surge in coronavirus cases.

The warning came on top of new restrictions prohibiting indoor dining.

Spotting a potential loophole, the hotel asked its followers “Why stay out in the cold?” when they could instead rent a room for €2 and take advantage of a food and drink service in two-hour slots.

The hotel said: “Why stay out in the cold? Spoil yourself, dine indoors, rent one of our rooms and avail of our food and beverage service.

"Our rooms are currently available to rent for an allotted time - €2 per person sharing all weekend!

"Don't miss this one time only offer, when they're gone they're gone."

However, the hotel later apologised for any “unintentional offence” after a backlash on social media.

It explained the offer was intended to be taken up by local residents and not those from out of town.

The hotel wrote: “The offer was a way for us to remain in operation so that we could recoup our costs from stock ordered for the full house of residents that cancelled on Friday evening.

“It also allowed us to keep our staff employed and we believe this has highlighted the current stress facing the hospitality industry across Ireland.”

It added: “We were told by the government that we could stay open, but then told to operate under such strict restrictions, whereby it was not feasible to keep our doors open.”

Ireland recorded another 430 coronavirus cases on Sunday.

The country has suffered about 35,000 coronavirus cases and 1800 deaths since the pandemic began, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally.