If Hotel Ballina is a 3 star, then this can't be. As Gina L (so close to yet another Irish FTR) already remarked, the airport hotel is just for people to crash before their early flight. I'm guessing no one stays here for a week at a time. In my case, the 3 hour drive or 3.5 hour train ride from Ballina was not going to be possible before a 10am international departure. So my client booked this guy for me.
The room is fine - what I thought was a really confusing light switch layout - the switches didn't seem to be in the traditional "three way" arrangement that I'm used to in the US (where any switch being in the "on" position lights the lamp) but rather in a series configuration where they *both* had to be on in order to light the lamp. I think that's actually against code in the US. Also, a series of very slow to fire fluorescent bulbs kept me guessing as to whether the switch I'd thrown was going to do anything. They do thoughtfully include alternate country power sockets - over the TV furniture were two UK/Ireland G type sockets, as well as two continental Europe F/Schuko type sockets. But no US two or three prong. Probably because it would just encourage stupid Americans to plug their 110V non-auto-ranging appliances directly in to the wall and blow them up.
The bed...well, more flat sheets, but whatevs. Not as good as Hotel Ballina. Very hard mattress...very thin limp pillows. Just wasn't the most comfy night of sleep, but it worked.
But the bathroom is kind of where the fun starts. I walk in - look! A heated towel rack. There's a luxury touch. But it doesn't work. Even after I found a switch for it and the little "on" light came on, nothing happened. Fun. The shower...well, the shower curtain, in contrast to most hotels, was way too long. In fact, so long, that about 9 inches of it was lying on the floor of the tub, covering the drain and basically acting as a wick for the water that isn't draining. Next, the shower has intense, power washer style pressure and flow. I mean...Amazon basin type flow. I was waiting to hear a news story about the Atlantic suddenly dropping several inches. The combination of this amount of water flow created a breeze inside the narrow tub that literally sucked the shower curtain in to you as you stood, where it then stuck. Because you are more wet than you've ever been in a shower, due to all that water. And when you did manage to get the curtain off the drain, it drained so powerfully that I was looking for something to hold on to. Seriously - in 4-5 inch deep water, it made a little tub drain tornado that managed to reach from the surface of the water all the way to he drain itself. I know all of that sounds like something out of nothing, but I've never taken a shower where I just got *frustrated* before. Between batting the curtain out of the way, tripping on the curtain in the bottom of the tub, and standing calf deep in water that wouldn't drain...I was pretty happy when I was done and could use my non-heated towel.
Would I stay here again? Yeah...as a means to an end, I guess I would. But there's supposedly an airport Hilton. And you know how I feel about Hiltons. Even if the Radisson Blu is just a few minutes from the airport via free shuttle...it might be worth switching. read more