Looks nice, but looks can be deceivingPosted: Sat, Jul 19 2008Location:
2Rooms:
2.5Service:
1.5Value:
3The Park Plaza Tyrrelstown is well away from the parts of Dublin a tourist would want to see, and it isn't easy to find! When we called the hotel to get an address to punch into our GPS, all they could provide was a route number (astounding that their front desk staff didn't know an exact address!). After much driving, we found it and made sure to fix the route in our memories.
The staff at the desk didn't exude Irish charm. Rather, they seemed coldly professional, tolerating our presence.
Our room was quite lovely. One look showed how new the place was, and the amenities were very nice, as was the tilework in the bathroom. To call the bed hard would be an understatement. It was like rock. We were not pleased, but we were stuck with it.
The hotel restaurant, Maya Che, had good food, but it was very pricey, even by local standards.
The icing on the cake for this decidedly mediocre stay was that the hotel charged an extra 20 Euros to my credit card two weeks after we left. No e-mail to say why, and there can be no reason. We left the room spotless, we returned our keycards, we didn't take anything with us (we never even used the mini-bar), but they apparently felt entitled to bill for who-knows-what without so much as the courtesy of a heads-up to let me know what they were doing. As we had already dropped over $2,100 for a week's stay there (that includes a couple of meals), perhaps they thought I wouldn't notice or mind an extra 20 Euros. Of course, this fits with their overall attitude. Not exactly first class!