Comfort Inn Citywest - Dublin , Ireland     

We traveled to Dublin last weekend for the Football Final in croke Park and stayed at the City West Hotel. We have stayed there many times before and have found in recent times that the basic maintenence and service is on a downward slope. Our experience was poor first of all in the restaurant with our table being given away even though we had arrived at the booking time. Once we eventually got a table we waited 1.5 hours for our main course. The following morning we queued for three quarters of an hour to get into the breakfast room and a further half hour to get our breakfast. The leisure centre there is also in poor shape with dirty showers and steam room. On the golf course our golf cart packed up half way through our round of golf. On the up side the bedrooms are very good.

It became necessary to book an hotel when other arrangements fell through, and we chose the City West Comfort Inn as being positioned to allow us to drive to the Curragh with ease, & also not too far out of the centre of Dublin. Online research indicated that there were few buses to be had, and that the hotel had not been too easy for some people to find - despite a sketch map on the website. We came in from the south on the N81, and went 2 junctions along the M50 Ring Road and left onto the N7, alongside which this hotel stood. We drove straight past it without realising, and then spent about half an hour of frustration, knowing we weren't far away. Finally, a kindly receptionist in a car dealership 'phoned for us, and we were set right. If you come up the N7 Naas Rd towards Dublin, the hotel is on your right, and the sign is visible on the wall of this modern building, but from Dublin you cannot see the Comfort Inn sign until you are past the turning!! To make it less easy to get there, there are no signs at the junction, and the hotel is partially screened by trees, so that when you finally approach the entrance you don't see it until the last moment. All this is compounded if you arrive after dark. Checking-in was easy, and staff were polite and helpful. The room was a pretty standard affair for this class of hotel, with tea-making facilities and TV, but no mini-bar or 'fridge. We didn't need a mini-bar, but a small 'fridge would have been handy. We went to eat next morning, having read that a complementary continental breakfast was available. There was a self-serve area, which had juices, cereals, bread and croissants, tea, coffee & small cheeses, but prominently sited were covered dishes with sausages, bacon and some rather odd little omelettes - all put out some time earlier. Seeing no signs, price-lists or cautions displayed, we, - foolishly - helped ourselves. The food was edible, but not freshly done, and certainly not worth the forty pounds we ended up being billed for 3 mornings of it. This hotel is fairly new, but part of a world-wide chain, so they should know what they're doing. They seem to cater for business clients, and, as with our stay, people in town for the All-Ireland Gaelic Football final. Passing trade isn't such a priority. The staff were helpful when asked for anything, such as the receptionist who advised us to drive along to the M50 interchange and use the Park & Ride facility . Small concerns were dealt with, but some staff are obviously from E. Europe, and their english is very limited. Good points: Its new and modern. If you have a car, drive to the P&R at Red Cow, and take the LUAS (Tram) into the city centre. Not-so-good-points: Very few signs to help you find this hotel. The fact that breakfast will be charged if you take what's offered. We still cannot work out how you differentiate between 'Continental' & 'non-Continental ' breakfast when you serve yourself, when there's one staff member present - taking room-numbers on the door, and no kind of notice or guide displayed as to what each type of breakfast consists of. To toast, or not to toast??. Security a bit loose - you can access the accommodation from the basement garage by lift without using a key-card. At one point we were in our room - fortunately with the safety-hook on it - when someone tried to walk in without knocking. One good thing was Rathcoole. This is a suburb two junctions west down the N7 from the hotel, and it has a Tesco Express, a bank, a very good take-away called Marsala's, &, at the end of the street, right by a sliproad on/off the N7, a pub/restaurant called The Poteen Still (in Irish) which is big, friendly, and does excellent food. We never took a bus, as the tram worked well for us, & is obviously popular. Just beware of massive roadworks at the N7/ M50 junction where the Red Cow tram-stop is located.