Dublin 'Hotel' of the Thousand Welcomes....NOT!

Started by balladmaker, September 23, 2010, 12:22:38 AM

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balladmaker

Well I stayed in a decent Dublin city centre hotel over the All Ireland weekend just past....the Trinity Capital on Pearse Street.  Nice hotel and well located.

Firstly, on arriving on Saturday, we went into the hotel bar for some lunch around 2PM.  We had a 6 month old baby sleeping in the pram, along with us.

I thought the waitress was coming over to take our food order, until she proceeded to tell me, in broken English, that children were not permitted in the bar at anytime.  This was news to me, as I had thought children were permitted up until a certain time if food was being served.  Now we're talking a 6 month old baby here, sleeping in a pram, doing no one any harm.  But we had to leave the hotel bar, which was empty by the way, and go elsewhere for something to eat.  So that didnt go down too well with the 8 of us who were staying.

Then to finish off the weekend, I watched in horror as the hotel manager refused to switch the bar TV over from American NFL to watch the Sunday Game at 9.30 on Sunday night!  The bar was full of Down and Cork people who were resident in the hotel, and two Americans who were not resident but had arranged to call in to see the NFL game!

Talk about ructions, there was a mass exodus from the hotel bar, as people headed to another pub to see the Sunday Game.  I, like many of those who were there, won't be staying at the Trinity Capital again.

So much for welcoming your guests....feckin joke!

SLIGONIAN

Quote from: balladmaker on September 23, 2010, 12:22:38 AM
Well I stayed in a decent Dublin city centre hotel over the All Ireland weekend just past....the Trinity Capital on Pearse Street.  Nice hotel and well located.

Firstly, on arriving on Saturday, we went into the hotel bar for some lunch around 2PM.  We had a 6 month old baby sleeping in the pram, along with us.

I thought the waitress was coming over to take our food order, until she proceeded to tell me, in broken English, that children were not permitted in the bar at anytime.  This was news to me, as I had thought children were permitted up until a certain time if food was being served.  Now we're talking a 6 month old baby here, sleeping in a pram, doing no one any harm.  But we had to leave the hotel bar, which was empty by the way, and go elsewhere for something to eat.  So that didnt go down too well with the 8 of us who were staying.

Then to finish off the weekend, I watched in horror as the hotel manager refused to switch the bar TV over from American NFL to watch the Sunday Game at 9.30 on Sunday night!  The bar was full of Down and Cork people who were resident in the hotel, and two Americans who were not resident but had arranged to call in to see the NFL game!

Talk about ructions, there was a mass exodus from the hotel bar, as people headed to another pub to see the Sunday Game.  I, like many of those who were there, won't be staying at the Trinity Capital again.

So much for welcoming your guests....feckin joke!
If i were you i give the owner of the hotel a call, he would be the boss of the hotel manager and he'd probably be so grateful with your call that he'd give you a few free nights. I actually got angry reading the above so can only imagine how ye felt.

Is the hotel manager in question Irish?
"hard work will always beat talent if talent doesn't work"

ross4life

The key to success is to be consistently competitive -- if you bang on the door often it will open

Tyrones own

I won't darken the door after reading that...fair play
For highlighting it!  >:(
Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.
  - Walter Lippmann

Cde

List of hotels to stay in Dublin

Trinity Capital  Pearse St.

thats it struck off my list

balladmaker

QuoteIs the hotel manager in question Irish?

He was indeed!

Canalman

In the interest of balance Balladmaker please let us know how the rest of your weekend went in Dublin. Bet you had a blast.
Thread heading a tad misleading imo.

Problem imo in hotel industry is imo it is being "guided" by accountants screaming for cheap labour to be employed with the charm/personal element being sidelined.

Sandino

I spend a lot of time travelling in Ireland and I have to say that poor service in Irish Hotels is not restricted to Dublin. In my experience many staff are rude and very unhelpful, some appear to be annoyed if you go to reception to ask a question. Also last week I read that Ireland is one of the cheapest places for hotels in Europe. What a joke!! In Ireland they almost always charge per person. I have spent weekends in Europe, including flights, for less that the price of bed and breakfast in a 3star hotel in Ireland. If the tourist industry is going to help lift us out or recession then they need to start to raise the level of service to clients. This coupled with the high prices for food and drink mean its sometimes cheaper to travel abroad than to spend a weekend in Ireland
"You can go proudly. You are history. You are legend''

AZOffaly

Quote from: Sandino on September 23, 2010, 11:24:49 AM
I spend a lot of time travelling in Ireland and I have to say that poor service in Irish Hotels is not restricted to Dublin. In my experience many staff are rude and very unhelpful, some appear to be annoyed if you go to reception to ask a question. Also last week I read that Ireland is one of the cheapest places for hotels in Europe. What a joke!! In Ireland they almost always charge per person. I have spent weekends in Europe, including flights, for less that the price of bed and breakfast in a 3star hotel in Ireland. If the tourist industry is going to help lift us out or recession then they need to start to raise the level of service to clients. This coupled with the high prices for food and drink mean its sometimes cheaper to travel abroad than to spend a weekend in Ireland

Ok, I don't work in tourism at all, but I have to say that I much prefer to stay in a hotel in Ireland than in practically anywhere else in Europe. A lot of my travel, particulalry to the UK would be with business, which might colour my judgment, but I always find hotels there to be soulless places. They are clean, functional and do the job, but they are not places I would go to relax or even have a bit of craic, in general. There are exceptions such as a grand place I stayed in in Norwich recently.

In Ireland, I find it's the opposite. The staff are generally friendly (as opposed to polite), the pub is usually lively enough, and the quality is high in terms of cleanliness and food as well. Again, in general, there are obviously exceptions.

I've never been to the place mentioned above, and notwithstanding the fact that the Yanks obviously asked first, I have never had any bad experience with a child in an Irish hotel. Normally they are all about the kid and very good about bottles, baby bowls etc.

Finally, as regards prices per person, I agree it's a nuisance, but there are still deals to be had even at pps rates. It should be noted that several hotel chains also now offer Per Room rates, but they tend to be those hotels closest to the English model of functional, clean and sterile, such as the various Bewleys etc.


TacadoirArdMhacha

I can well understand why they refused to change the channel on the TV when other customers had gone to the trouble of pre-booking a station. Fair enough, you could argue that the management should have been aware of the Sunday Game before allowing the booking but to have changed the channel would have been very ignorant.
As I dream about movies they won't make of me when I'm dead

Sandino

I would not disagree with many of your points AZ apart from the level of service that I have experienced here in Ireland.


Just did a quick price check there. 179 euro for two nights room only on Bewleys in November. Thats more than I normally spend on my winter break in Europe which is normally 3 nights duration. Maybe I'm just a tight git!
"You can go proudly. You are history. You are legend''

T Fearon

Have stayed in the Regency, Burlington and the Gresham during the last year. If I had paid for any of them I'd be up in arms. From decor to service they were all a big let down. Particularly disappointed with Gresham last weekend. The room allocated was overlooking O'Connell Street, noise never stopped  all night long, practically impossible to get to sleep. Handles on window didn't work properly and even the breakfast had a member of staff serving, lest one might take an extra rasher or sausage. Disaster

AZOffaly

Gresham staff try to keep Tony away from the sausages.


Hardy

  :D :D :D
That'd have been a splattered screen if I hadn't already finished the coffee.

Rois

Have stayed in the Camden Court (yuck), Hilton at Charlemont St (nice), Radisson off Georges St (lovely), Stephen's Green Hotel (handy), Fitzwilliam (absolutely gorgeous with really nice staff but expensive), Skylon (adequate), Radisson Dublin Airport (nice) and Bewley's Ballsbridge (cheapest), all since March.

Staff were nicest at the Fitzwilliam (but you probably get what you pay for) and is my favourite, but Bewleys Ballsbridge comes in second, despite lack of luxuries.  Nice accommodating staff.  Radisson hotels are great but a bit soulless - had no problem having a glass of vino on my own in the bar in the Fitzwilliam but wouldn't have done it in either Radisson. 

Stayed down in the Hibernian in Kilkenny and wasn't the slightest bit impressed with their reception staff.

Sandino, completely agree about the price - I definitely don't see it as a cheap place to stay.  But on the other hand, my colleagues are finding it very hard to book a big hotel for four straight nights during the week down here - impossible to get the Radisson and unless you're two weeks in advance, hard to get the Hilton as well.  There are busloads of US tourists piling into them each day.