New 45-bedroom B&B to officially open in Athlone today

A new 45-bedroom bed and breakfast business will be officially opened in Athlone today.

Home Inn B&B is being opened today by one of the three Fianna Fáil candidates for the European elections, Barry Cowen.

Sean & Kelly Zhang are the owners of Home Inn B&B and Ken's Oriental Restaurant at The Crescent Athlone.

Sean and Kelly are in business in Athlone for 20 years. They live in Coosan and have three young sons. They operated Ken's Oriental Restaurant in Irishtown for many years before they purchased a property at The Crescent.

Sean and Kelly purchased the property in 2020, since then they have continued to operate their successful restaurant business and also set about the daunting task of completely redeveloping the entire inside of the old Crescent building. Despite the challenges presented by Covid and the construction inflation crisis, Sean and Kelly continued to work hard on their redevelopment project.

Last year Home Inn B&B opened its doors, boasting an impressive 45 ensuite bedrooms all completed to a very high standard. Failte Ireland approved, Home Inn B&B has been exceptionally busy since it opened with tourists, shoppers, business people and weekend visitors all choosing to stay at Athlone's newest town centre accommodation offering.

Local Councillor Aengus O'Rourke, a long time friend of the Zhang family, said that Home Inn B&B is a very welcome addition to our tourism offering in Athlone. "Athlone has high standards when it comes to accommodation, food and hospitality - Home Inn B&B fits beautifully into our local offering and I have no doubt that Sean and Kelly will make a great success of it. They are great business people and wonderful hosts."

Barry Cowen will perform the official opening of Home Inn B&B today, Friday, at 12noon.