Recently the first sustainable hotel opened in Europe. Located in Dublin, the Iveagh Garden is a welcome addition to the limited amount of hotel rooms available in the area. The Harcourt Hotel, which happens to be the sister hotel of the Iveagh Garden, has had about 98% occupancy on any given night and the same is expected of this new hotel. Both of these hotels are owned by the McGill family who currently owns not only hotels, but businesses as well. Here is what makes this new Iveagh Garden so unique.

Powered By The River

It's not surprising that hotels use a lot of energy, which can run thousands and thousands of dollars every month. To cut costs and be environmentally friendly, the Iveagh Garden will be getting all of the energy the hotel uses from the river Swan that's about 50 meters under it. Turbines convert all of this energy and turn it into power for the hotel. They expect that they won't have to use energy from any other source. This savings will be very welcome as a lot of money went into building this hotel as it cost $49 million to build it.

The Rates And The Rooms
Rates will run around $250 a night in the low season and $340 in the high season. The four star hotel property consists of 150 room, but they hope to add 11 more rooms within the next year. Room views will consist of either Harcourt Street, located at the back of the property and very busy, or Georgian facade for rooms that are located at the front of the property. Triple glazed windows will block much of the noise so guests will be able to enjoy a good night's sleep. No matter which room guests stay in they will have accommodations that have modern decor with much of it being sourced from products only in Ireland. Much of the floors are tiled, there's rich wallpaper throughout plus brass fixtures and mirrors in abundance. When guests get hungry they can head over to the onsite restaurant that has a bistro setting and ingredients using fresh ingredients. Darren O'Brien was recently appointed as the head chef and is responsible for creating all of the meals. For those that are lucky enough to be in Ireland when there is nice weather, they can enjoy a meal out on the terrace that overlooks the hotel's gardens.