Five-Star Solution for the Five-Star Europe Hotel & Resort

The Background

Framed by Ireland’s highest mountain range and mirrored in the waters of Lough Léin, The Europe Hotel & Resort stands as a symbol of Irish luxury. The five-star property features approximately 200 rooms and suites, many with private lake-facing balconies. Complemented by five restaurants, two bars, and a 4,600-square-metre ESPA wellness facility, it’s equally suited to leisure seekers and business guests.

The resort’s spa offers a 20-metre indoor pool, outdoor vitality and saltwater pools, saunas, steam rooms and experience showers; all designed to promote deep relaxation. In parallel, the property houses a 13,400-square-foot conference and events centre with nine adaptable meeting rooms accommodating up to 600 guests. All elements work together to create a destination where high-end comfort meets high-functioning facilities.

The Challenge

In their commitment to elevate guest wellbeing, The Europe Hotel & Resort launched a multi-million-euro redevelopment, placing a strong focus on energy-efficient climate control. Brian Scully Services, the resort’s long-term mechanical partner, and Mitsubishi Electric were tasked with solving a highly complex brief.

The physical constraints of a legacy building posed immediate challenges. Stephen McGrath, Area Sales Manager at Mitsubishi Electric maintains that because The Europe Hotel is "an existing building that's operational, so it's always going to be a much more difficult install than a new build". Multiple structural additions over the years had created irregular spaces with limited ceiling voids and tight service routes. The team had to navigate these limitations while delivering whisper-quiet air conditioning systems that would be invisible to the guest eye, all without disrupting ongoing hotel operations. Stephen echoes this sentiment when he states that "ideally you want to pick a product that's easy to retrofit in and that also minimises the building work that's required on site"

The Solution

The solution revolved around the deployment of Mitsubishi Electric’s next-generation Hybrid VRF system. The Europe Hotel & Resort project was the first application of the Mitsubishi Electric's 50Kw (21Hp) heat recovery (R2) outdoor unit utilising R32 refrigerant. The R32 Refrigerant having a low Global Warming Potential (680 GWP), has provided a 42% reduction in environmental impact compared to its predeceasing R410A VRF system. As Kevin testifies that "Mitsubishi Electric has their product married into a retrofit perfectly".

In addition to this, Mitsubishi Electric’s City Multi outdoor units were used in conjunction with water-based HVRF technology in the bedroom areas. The Hybrid VRF system uses both refrigerant and water circuits. Crucially, refrigerant is removed from occupied spaces and replaced with water between the hybrid branch controller (HBC) and the indoor units. This innovation eliminates the need for costly refrigerant leak detection in guest rooms, significantly reducing compliance and installation burdens. Mitsubishi Electric was the first manufacturer to enable the application of R32 refrigerant to heat recovery multi-systems to reduce the requirement of leak detection in a hotel application.

A main feature of HVRF is the ability to simultaneously heat and cool different spaces. This application sees independently controlled heating in one bedroom area and the ability to provide cooling, fan or off operations in a connected lounge area. In the suites with two separate living areas, the guests have complete control over all occupied areas. This provides significant efficiency values and energy savings with both heating and cooling heat recovery available. Furthermore, rooms featured intuitive wall-mounted interfaces and smart TV integration that allowed users to manage temperature and fan settings.

Maintenance efficiency was also built in. The AE-200A central controller allowed remote diagnostics, with individual room settings viewable on tablets by the hotel’s mobile maintenance team. Technicians could track real-time system performance via the hotel’s LAN, without requiring external servers or license-based platforms. Kevin informed us that "Down in the maintenance office then we have the central control touchscreen, which Michael can see all the bedrooms, he can see in the event of a fault or a failure he can immediately look at it from that side without interrupting the guest." Power management software is being applied during the current expansion phase and applied retrospectively to previous phases to allow automated optimised operation and data recording, and energy management.

Brian Scully Services have worked their way through the tiers of the Mitsubishi Electric Ireland partner programme. In 2025, they were awarded Diamond Quality Partner (DQP) status for their professionalism, reliability and customer-first values. Reflecting on the partnership, Kevin said: “Being part of the DQP Programme with Mitsubishi Electric is invaluable. They provide the training to the engineers, they're always on the end of the line for a query or an issue.” He added, “It's absolutley vital to have someone like Mitsubishi Electric as part of your team.”

Stephen explains the vital role our DQPs play in maintaining quality; "Diamond Quality Partners, they are extremely important to us. We need our product to be installed in the correct manner; as a manufacturer, that’s very important to us."

The project delivered both immediate and long-term benefits for The Europe Hotel & Resort. From a guest perspective, comfort can be tailored to individual preferences with the individual room temperature control, alongside the system’s quiet operation and responsive controls. Michael echoes the guest comfort when he tells us "the most positive return we've seen is the feedback from our guests. The comfort of the rooms, the comfort of the suites".

Furthermore, future proofing the hotel was ensured by the shift to R32 refrigerant, which provided regulatory peace of mind, positioning the hotel well ahead of the EU’s F-Gas phase-down timelines. 

This project not only exceeded expectations in performance and aesthetics but also laid the groundwork for future innovation. With its robust infrastructure and intelligent platform, The Europe Hotel & Resort is now equipped to adapt to evolving environmental standards and guest expectations for years to come. Finally, as Michael summarised "Brian Skully Services and Mitsubishi Electric, they operate on a five star basis. You cannot sell five star if you don’t have five star backing it up. "