The Merrion Hotel Dublin — Hotel in Dublin

Worst experience in Ireland so far. We are currently staying at this hotel for 2 nights, it’s our first night here and I can tell you immediately that this is NO 5 star hotel! We stayed in 5 star castle hotels throughout Ireland on our trip and one 4 star hotel which were all marvelous and the food delicious. This hotel disappointed us almost as soon as we walked in, nothing special or grand on the inside, the rooms are clean and large but certainly nothing special as I expect from a 5 star hotel. As soon as we walked up to check in the concierge (very friendly woman) hands us a paper with our pre-paid and pre booked dinner reservations in The Garden Room. The time was completely wrong, she looked confused and told us she would look into it for us, upon further inspection, the DATE was completely wrong....(like 2 weeks ago wrong). Thankfully the restaurant allowed us to dine at our previously scheduled time. Walking through the boring hallways there are large, evident stains on the carpets. Entering the room they had a nice dessert awaiting us for my husband’s birthday and some fruit which was very nice. When we got to the Garden Room restaurant we were greeted with hesitation/confusion and sat at a nearby table overlooking the garden. My husband commented that the restaurant looked like a cafeteria...again...NOT the ambiance I would expect from a 5 star hotel. After we had chosen our dinner from a delicious looking selection, the waitress comes over and switched out our menus and says “Oh I’m sorry I just found out you made a booking online for dinner so you order off of THIS menu” After looking through the very few selections (we hate fish and it was mostly fish) I asked if we could just eat off of the other menu, to which she explained it would be an additional 15 euros per/person. We agreed and ordered filet minion and ribeye dinners. Both my husband and I agreed, this was the WORST FOOD WE’VE HAD IN IRELAND. The filet was so tough I had to saw through it absolutely NO flavor, served with only some unappealing French fries and onion rings 🤯🤢 These were 40 euro steak dinners!! After a manager heard we complained about the food he came to investigate, we were very polite and explained that we would like to order some dessert to our room (the dessert menu looked amazing and we were hoping for the best). I ordered a warm brownie with ice cream. The ice cream looked like it had been scooped with a teaspoon and was completely melted. So I didn’t even get to use it for my dried out, hard as a rock brownie. This brownie was SO HARD that as I was cutting it flew off of the plate 3 TIMES! And covered my robe in chocolate. I’m literally writing this review with my robe covered in chocolate. 😡 so far...this experience has been terrible, I hope it...

It is my duty to post this review to warn and inform other travelers to keep their personal belongings from being stolen. I am still in absolute shock that this happened at a 5 star hotel but my MacBook Pro was stolen straight out of my back pack in our hotel room when we were out in the city. This summer we traveled around Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Iceland and never had an issue. We probably stayed at around 100 hotels this summer and never had a single item stolen. It is absolutely unacceptable and shocking that this happened in this 5 star luxury hotel. We notified the staff and they were able to look up the digital log of the individuals who had gone into our room and this included the members of house keeping who cleaned our room and did turn down service and whomever dropped off some laundry one day. These members of the hotel staff were interviewed and of course they all denied having taken the laptop. It does not take a Sherlock Holmes to know that it was one of these individuals that stole my laptop. It was somebody with knowledge of the laptop and electronic key access to the room as there was no sign of forced entry into our room. If you cannot be and feel safe in a locked 5 star hotel room where can you? These people are trusted by the hotel to do their jobs and not steal but unfortunately they saw a nice laptop and went for it. As there are no cameras in the hallway, there is no way to tell who stole the laptop. The Garda were called but with no video footage, not much that can be done. And by the time I noticed that laptop was gone, it had been reset and FIND MY DEVICE had been turned off. This is a very expensive ($4,000 US dollars) and painful lesson but now we will travel assuming that we WILL be robbed in our own locked hotel room even if it is a super nice 5 star luxury hotel room. I feel extremely violated and again very shocked that this was done by a member of the hotel housekeeping staff who was trusted by the hotel and had key access to our room. The cherry on top was when my wife got mild food poisoning on our last night from the chicken she ate at the Garden...

An absolutely sublime hotel. We stayed 4 nights in two separate visits and felt so comfortable and cared for. TL;DR version: Staff are top notch... from reception, concierge, housekeeping, dining, etc. Very friendly, and always offering to help with any detail or question. Facilities are immaculate and well curated. Very comfortable bed, beautiful bathroom, excellent food.

We booked the town and country package which includes a visit to Ashford Castle. Working with reservations was a breeze, they looked after every little detail. Our flight landed at 9am, and when we arrived at the hotel they thankfully had our room ready, which was a pleasant treat. We did the Art tour + afternoon tea, which was very informative and a enlightening experience. Our tour guide was so knowledgeable about all the art in The Merrion, they have an extensive collection. During our time in Dublin, we were able to easily explore the city from the Hotel, it is so well situated. Just a block from several excellent museums, and so much to see right in that area. Food: the food is excellent in the Merrion. We breakfasted there every morning, and they were very willing to make requested adjustments to our orders. We also enjoyed the Cellar as well - had fabulous cocktails there. Room service was also excellent and prompt. Room: the room we had our first visit was spacious and lovely. The bed was quite comfy, and the bathroom quite elegant with so many features. The only drawback to the room was temperature control. It was warm for the time of year (upper 50's to lower 60's F); and the room was quite warm. We made adjustments on the temperature system, but nothing ever changed. We did not report it and just opened windows to attempt to cool the room down. Staff: truly excellent staff. Reception consistently cordial and friendly. Restaurant staff attentive and not intrusive. Concierge and front staff very accommodating. We had a few billing errors that once brought to their attention they immediately corrected and handled very professionally.

Overall, it's a beautiful hotel and a wonderful place to...