A new era dawns at north coast’s Bayview

A new era dawns at north coast’s Bayview

Change is a constant at the Bayview Hotel in Portballintrae, but owner Trevor Kane has just come up with some of his most ambitious plans to date for the popular north coast venue.

The Bayview Hotel has commanded the most memorable views of Portballintrae’s perfect horseshoe bay since at least the early 1900s, entertaining generations of holidaymakers in this most idyllic of coastal settings.

Yet its current owner, Trevor Kane (58), has always seen the hotel as much more than just an average seaside venue, where its success from one year to the next relies solely on a busy summer season.

His vision for the Bayview is of a high quality, contemporary hotel offering modern facilities with diverse options for accommodation and a high level of service. And the latest phase in an ongoing process of near constant refurbishment at the hotel should take the venue to a new level.

Ambitious plans revealed this month will see an additional 20 standard, superior and self-catering rooms added to the offering by summer 2019, bringing the total number of rooms at the Bayview to 45.

Up to 30 new jobs should be created by the expansion.

Since taking the hotel on a decade ago, there have been frequent rounds of investment aimed at improving various aspects of the interior and exterior of the building.

“Initially, the front of the building was renovated and new windows were installed throughout,” says Trevor. “Generally, every year, some aspect of the hotel is updated. I would say that over the last 10 years, we have spent around £750,000 in total on improvements.”

The number of employees has also grown, from 12 in 2008 to around 42 today.

“We have had great support over the years from throughout the local community, including second homeowners and caravanners,” adds Trevor. “Tourism has gone from strength to strength on the north coast and last year, our room occupancy was at 83 per cent.”

And he adds:

“Golf is the big thing on the north coast. We had a great lift from the Open at Royal Portrush in 2012, obviously that caused a lot of excitement, and we had golfers from all over the world coming in. Now, with the 2019 Open coming up, the Royal and Ancient, who organise the event, have completely booked us out for it.”

Trevor Kane (left), MD and owner of the Bayview Hotel, shows expansion plans to Christopher Murray, relationship director with Barclays, who are supporting the expansion plans.

Trevor hopes that if he is successful in his bid for planning permission for the new rooms, he will be able to begin work on site by November of this year.

But that’s only phase one of his ongoing improvement plans.

“We also have plans to build a new restaurant underneath the hotel,” he revealed. “It would look out over the bay through large windows constructed in the cliff face. It’s an ambitious project, but one that we are very excited about.

“We’re confident, but you never know. We’ve had some objections, but we’ve also had lots of positive people who are behind us. What we’re trying to do is make Portballintrae better and create more employment for people.

“Our priority now is to get the planning approval through and get on with things. In three or four years’ time, we hope to be in a position where our new bedrooms have all been added and we’ve been able to employ 20 or 30 more people.”

Long terms, says Trevor, he is very optimistic.

“The Open has given us a great lift, it showcased the whole north coast area for us and opened it up to the world. We are just five minutes from Royal Portrush here and we are very fortunate that a lot of North Americans are now coming down and deciding to stay on the north coast.”

Trevor and the Bayview already make financial contributions to a number of major sporting events that take place regularly on the north coast, including the NW200 motorcycle race, the Armoy Road Races and various golf tournaments.

“We do this because these events put money back into the local community and help raise its profile to a very wide and varied audience,” explains Trevor.

 

Events such as the Irish Open – held on the north coast in 2015 – have done much to drive the international reputation of the region as a haven for holidaymakers.