The Merchant Hotel Celebrates 20 Years Leading Luxury Hospitality in Belfast

Belfast’s iconic AA red five-star hotel, The Merchant, marks its 20th anniversary this year, celebrating two decades of unrivalled luxury and world-class hospitality in the heart of the Cathedral Quarter.

Since opening in spring 2006, The Merchant has played a defining role in shaping the city’s premium hospitality offering, transforming the historic former Ulster Bank headquarters into one of the UK and Ireland’s most acclaimed hotels.

The vision for The Merchant was ambitious from the outset. At a time when Belfast was a fledgling tourism destination founder Bill Wolsey set out to create a five-star experience that could rival leading cities around the world.

“We were told it wouldn’t work… that Belfast wasn’t ready,” owner Bill Wolsey recalls. “But we believed that if you deliver exceptional service in exceptional surroundings, people will respond.”

That belief has been borne out over the past two decades, with The Merchant earning international recognition, including the prestigious AA Five Red Star award, and building a reputation for excellence across every aspect of the guest experience.

“We studied the best hotels in London, Paris, and New York to understand what makes them successful,” explains Bill Wolsey. “We trained our staff to those standards, while encouraging people to show their personalities. Initially, we sent staff abroad to learn—now those same hotels send their staff to us. When we opened in the Cathedral Quarter the footfall in the area on a Saturday night was around 300, now it is 15,000. This all shows how far we’ve come.” 

Setting the Standard 

Under the leadership of General Manager Gavin Carroll, the hotel continues to set the benchmark for service and guest experience.

 “Achieving the AA Five Red Star status was a defining moment,” explains GM Gavin Carroll, speaking of the classification that remains exclusive to The Merchant in Ireland. “It demonstrated that we could stand alongside the very best hotels in the world.”

At the heart of the hotel’s success is its people — a highly skilled and dedicated team, many of whom have been part of The Merchant’s journey for more than a decade, and some for 15, even 20 years. That continuity of service has helped create a culture of consistency, warmth and attention to detail that defines the unrivalled guest experience.

 “To be celebrating this milestone is a testament to the unwavering dedication of our incredible team and the loyalty of our guests,” says GM Gavin Carroll. “For the last two decades every team member has taken great pride in curating personalised luxury experiences, and we look forward to building on this legacy in the future.”

“It makes me feel proud,” adds Bill Wolsey, reflecting on the hotel’s 20^th milestone. “Proud of the hotel and proud of our team. Many employees have been here for 10, 15, even 20 years, and across the company up to 35 years. That consistency creates pride and ensures great service. Beyond the décor, food and drink and getting that right, it’s the people and the service that define us.”

Over the years, The Merchant has played a key role in raising standards across the wider hospitality sector, helping to position Belfast as a destination capable of delivering luxury experiences on an international level.

Beyond its accolades, the hotel has become firmly embedded in the life of the city – a destination for celebrations, milestones and memorable moments for both visitors and local guests alike.

A cornerstone of The Merchant experience is undoubtedly its famous Afternoon Tea offering and it is no surprise that this will take centre stage in the hotel’s anniversary celebrations.

A special 20^th anniversary edition Afternoon Tea menu has been created, crafted by head pastry chef Sarah Jade Jamison, and reimagining popular classics from the past two decades with modern, luxurious twists.

Served in the stunning surrounds of the iconic Great Room Restaurant, the 20^th Anniversary Afternoon Tea incorporates pioneering ingredients like yuzu, tonka bean and calamansi. Starting from £46.50 per person, guests can indulge in curated teas, reimagined dessert favourites, delicate finger sandwiches and freshly baked warm scones with clotted cream and preserves.

Looking Ahead

The Merchant will mark its 20^th anniversary milestone throughout 2026 with a programme of curated experiences, menus, and special moments, reflecting the creativity and quality that have defined the hotel over the past two decades. 

The hotel will share stories of key staff that have played a role in The Merchant’s success and is inviting guests to join the 20^thanniversary celebrations by sharing their favourite Merchant memories.

For more information, visit themerchanthotel.com or connect with The Merchant on Instagram, @MerchantBelfast

---

About The Merchant Hotel, Belfast

• The Merchant Hotel is located in Belfast’s historic Cathedral Quarter, in the heart of the city. 
• Spanning most of a city block, the hotel’s main entrance can be found on Skipper Street. The Great Room Restaurant can be accessed directly via Waring Street and Berts Jazz Bar’s main entrance is on High Street.
• The Merchant’s has 63 beautiful bedrooms, which come in two distinctive styles – Victorian Splendour and Art Deco Decadence.
• All of the suites at The Merchant Hotel are situated in the original Grade A listed building. They have been thoughtfully designed to epitomise the magnificence of the High Victorian period.
• Generously proportioned, each of the suites offers a lavish array of period features and luxurious furnishings; from the four-poster bed in the Seamus Heaney Suite to the marble fireplaces of the C.S Lewis and Brian Friel suites.
• All of the art deco bedrooms feature furniture from iconic designers of the period, including Eileen Gray and Le Corbusier, as well as specially commissioned works of art.
• Read more about the history of The Merchant Hotel here

20 THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT THE MERCHANT HOTEL: 

1. The Merchant Hotel is Northern Ireland’s only AA Five Red Star hotel, placing it among the finest luxury hotels in the UK and Ireland. 
2. The hotel is housed in a Grade A listed former Ulster Bank building, which had laid vacant for quite some time before it was transformed and given a new lease of life in in 2006. 
3. Before The Merchant opened in 2006, the Cathedral Quarter as we know it today did not exist – there was one restaurant (Nick’s Warehouse) on Hill Street and a handful of pubs in the area. The hotel is widely credited as being a catalyst for broader development of the area, which is now one of the busiest in Belfast.
4. The chandelier in the Great Room Restaurant is one of the largest in Ireland, at over 10 metres in height, it is suspended 7 metres from the iconic domed ceiling. It was created for The Merchant by Tyrone Crystal and features 16 arms, each adorned with a lamp and a curtain of crystals, cascading outward from a central structure of five intricate tiers of lights and crystals.
5. The ornate ceiling of the Great Room is adorned with 55 cherubs. 
6. The Merchant has been a pioneer of Afternoon Tea in Belfast, helping to redefine and elevate the experience locally. Over the past 20 years, the hotel has served over 375,000 Afternoon Teas and over 750,000 scones.
7. Over the past 20 years, The Merchant has welcomed almost 630,000 guests, with visitors from around the world. 
8. The Merchant features five Victorian suites named after literary figures: Seamus Heaney, CS Lewis, Brian Friel, Philip Larkin, Louis MacNeice.
9. Both Seamus Heaney and Brian Friel stayed in their namesake suites. 
10. From global events to intimate celebrations, The Merchant has become a cornerstone of Belfast’s social and cultural life, hosting everything from weddings and proposals; to gala dinners, awards shows, and major global events, including the MTV Voices Dinner, attended by Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and David Guetta. 
11. The hotel has featured as a filming location for major productions, including The Fall, starring Jamie Dornan. 
12. The hotel expanded in 2010 with the addition of a new Art Deco wing including 36 bedrooms, a spa, gym and Berts Jazz Bar, a meetings and events floor and roof garden.
13. The Merchant once held the Guinness World Record for the world’s most expensive cocktail, the Trader Vic Mai Tai, which cost £750. The cocktail used a 17-year-old Wray and Nephew Jamaican rum from 1944, of which the hotel owned one of only six remaining bottles.
14. In 2025, the hotel launched its ‘Rare & Refined’ cocktail menu, featuring ultra-premium creations, including one priced at a staggering £1,000, featuring Midleton Forêt de Tronçais, aged in rare French Tronçais oak casks. The Merchant’s Cocktail Bar’s usual list will not break the bank, however, with 21 delectable drinks, priced from a markedly more affordable £14.95. Each cocktail is named after its distinct flavour profile.
15. The hotel made global headlines in 2015 with the launch of its luxury water menu, featuring rare, bottled waters from around the world, with the most expensive bottle, from the Canadian Arctic, costing £26.45.
16. The Merchant hosts an annual Festival of Prosecco each September; running for over 10 years, the celebrations get bigger every year, with a host of sell-out events.
17. Berts Jazz Bar is Ireland’s only dedicated jazz bar, hosting live music seven nights a week. 
18. Berts has built a reputation for showcasing top local and international jazz talent, with special events and an annual festival taking place in October.
19. The iconic Great Room Christmas Tree is one of the city’s most loved, standing at over 25 feet tall, with the search for the perfect tree beginning each January. The Christmas theme changes every year and remains a closely guarded secret with staff not even knowing the theme until it is revealed on the last Thursday of November
20. The Merchant is known for its exceptional staff retention, with many team members having worked there for over 10, 15 and even 20 years. Over 20 members of the team have been with the hotel for more than 15 years, and over the last two decades The Merchant has had only two general managers.