Great Southern Hotels

In an effort to encourage tourism the Killarney Junction Railway, which was operated by the GS&WR, opened a hotel next to Killarney station. This was in 1854, which made it the first railway-owned hotel in Ireland. In the following years the GS&WR established further hotels in County Kerry at Caragh Lake, Kenmare, Parknasilla and Waterville. The company also owned small commercial hotels at Limerick Junction and near its stations in Dublin and Cork.

In 1925 the hotels became part of Great Southern Hotels, a subsidiary of Great Southern Railways, later part of CIE. CIE sold the chain to Aer Rianta who closed a few of the lossmaking hotels, and ran the others for some years. The Great Southern Hotels Group was dissolved in 2006, when its hotels were sold off separately to private investors.