We stayed 3 nights. We mostly enjoyed it and it was a comfortable stay.
Check in (and out) was prompt and breakfast was an add-on choice, at reception, on arrival.
The room was comfortable with a very good recliner chair, a desk, a table and other furnishings. There's a fan, tea/powdered coffee, kettle and a small tv.
We slept very well, and despite overlooking the front of the hotel with wind blowing up the lough it was very quiet overnight. I was awoken one night and it was pitch dark; the rain violently hammered the window as it blew up off the lough. It was lovely to be snug/warm with a howling wind outside.
I noted other reviewers felt this place needed a makeover but while there's some wear and tear almost everything worked and usually worked well.
The exceptions being one of the two lifts was out of order the whole time (and a nuisance with covid) we had to push the lift going up button to make the down button work, the coffee machine at brekky struggled and the apple juice dispenser kept pouring juice a while after the glass filled.
Gerry, the concierge, was fantastic; he looked after all our needs in every way we asked of him.
We did not use the pool area at all so can't comment but where it fell off the rails a bit for us was breakfast.
Day 1 it took 10 minutes to get porridge, I had to wait and go back a few times before it was made, on day 2 it was over 20 minutes. I got an apology yet day 2 was quiet compared to the previous day.
The lady doling out the breakfast had said she would bring it to me but she didn't bother. I caught a passing waitress and that's what got me my porridge - apparently the 'cook' 'didn't know where I was sitting' and seemed not to try too hard to find out.
I asked for croissants on day two to be told there were none, only for them to be offered 10 minutes later. The coffee machine was producing pretty poor cappuccino and the percentage of milk was tiny.
I may be wrong but it struck me at breakfast that it's over staffed and under managed as no one seemed in charge nor cared very much. I'd guess focussed effective management would iron out a lot of easily avoidable issues which would benefit customers and owners.
By day 3 I collared a chap in a suit with manager on his badge. He brought porridge to me in 5 minutes.
It's becoming a very competitive tourism scene out there and it just be really challenging to keep any business open these days but bearing that in mind I do get irritated when I see breakfast food cooked in huge batches just for the convenience of the 'cook' and to heck with the customer.
It seems most folks don't mind, that I'm the odd one out and they just fill their plates - fried potato bread is delicious but it becomes poor when drying out in a Bain Marie.
Similarly oven cooked bacon is convenient for the 'cook'. There's no crispy bacon. The potato bread and bacon here were already over - cooked before they hit the Bain Marie for a few hours.
Potato bread should be shallow fry cooked in very small batches for customer benefit, not dropped into deep oil.
The plastic skinned, cheap, fat laden sausages and other cheap meats and battery hen eggs aren't great eats so I don't bother but to be fair buying and frying the cheapest meats/eggs isn't exclusive to this hotel, rather it's all to common.
All in all a good three stars but the way the 'cook' prepared the food at breakfast, poor quality eggs and meat, factory made pancakes (when these are easy to do in house) with pre - frozen croissants/pastries convinced us not to dine-in at lunch and dinner and if we were here for a few days in better weather we'd go out for breakfast too. read more