Royal Hotel & Leisure Centre - Bray, Ireland     

"The Royal Hotel - a 3 Star Hotel in the heart of the bustling seaside resort of Bray". Part of this statement is true...it is in Bray. After that however, I would have to disagree. Firstly, the hotel itself is fine. Good quality, if small, rooms. Extremely basic but they do the job. Bed was nice, comfortable and clean. The Hotel features an excellent bar I must say, with live music at the weekends and very efficent staff. The resteraunt is a bright airy open plan resteraunt, with again very friendly and efficent staff (although the lady who appeared to be the manager really looked like she hated her job). Watch out too for the sneaky 10 Euro supplement added to your bill if you do decide to have steak (not worth it - try something else). Be prepared also to pay for your parking. 5 Euro per 24 hours, but the car park itself is manned 24 hours a day, so i felt it worth it for peace of mind. Venturing out into bustling Bray, you will find yourself surrounded by more drunks, yobs and others than you can imagine. Be very careful as this town has wall to wall weirdos. Overall, not too bad a stay but i wouldnt be rushing back in a hurry.

Our first experience of the hotel was poor because as we got out of the car were told we had to pay for parking up front. Thought I must be in the wrong carpark but was told no you have to pay. Next we went inside to check in, our impression of the hotel was one of ammused disbelief as it seemed we were in a time-warp back to the 1970's Faulty Towers style of establishment. This ammusment however lasted about 3 minutes until we made our way up to our room. We had booked a non-smoking room but were put into a smoking room as apperently none were left. Walking along the corridor to the room we were hit by a wave of foul musty smoke. When we ented the room however the smell changed, not now smoke but one of putrid grease. On looking out of the window we soon realised why, below were the extracter fans from the kitchen which contantly filled all the rooms above with foulness. The room was pokey and the decore old and tatty. We jumped on the bed to watch a bit of TV before going down for dinner but alas no remote. At dinner we were seated quickly and ordered from the limited menu. When the first course arrived of smoke salmon it had obviously been lying around all day as it was dry and brown at the edges. For main was pork in apple source which arrived without the source. Our drinks ordered took 20 minutes, this might be understandable if the resteraunt is busy, but when there is only yourselves and three other couples eating it's very poor. Back up to the room, and inspected the bathroom. Very basic indeed with two signs: 1. "run the taps for 15 minutes first for hot water". 2. "keep bathroom door closed while showering as this sets off the firealarm" So not hot water for a while and when we did get it the shower pressure was zero. In the evening went down to the bar and found an older gentleman complaining to a member of staff that the whole hotel stank of p*** and should be disinfected, the staff member claimed not be able to smell anything unpleasant. Went down for breakfast in next morning and were confronted by a very large queue winding ouside of the resteraunt. When we finally got our breakfast it was mediocre at best. On reading the reviews here it seems that my experience is typical. We certainly will not be staying at the royal again. In all seriousness it would have been a nicer stay if we had just slept in the car, but that still would have cost us 5 euro parking.