The Westbury — Hotel in Dublin

I’m disappointed to have to write this review, but I think it is important to outline my experience at the Westbury.

I was booked to spend one night at this hotel before heading to Galway to speak at an international legal conference. Unfortunately, my baggage was left behind in Australia.

Upon arrival in London I contacted the university travel team to discuss whether to stay in Dublin another night to make it easier to retrieve my bag rather than having it transported to the West Coast of Ireland. The Travel team agreed and made a booking for the extra night. They then informed me of the price of the room for the extra night and I thought it was quite ridiculous. I said it was okay, and I would go to Galway after one night as planned.

I woke up the next morning to receive an email saying that the room had been confirmed overnight for the extra night and that it was nonrefundable. The Travel team suggested that I contact the front desk and just make sure that this was the case. I called the front desk immediately and was told that the booking had been confirmed and that I would be staying an extra night. Due to the nonrefundable nature of the booking, I just accepted I was stuck with it.

I enjoyed a lovely day looking around Dublin. Unfortunately, everything went downhill when I returned to the hotel. Upon going to my room, my key didn’t work. I didn’t think much of it at the time. I went down to the front desk, but they were busy so I just took myself into a quiet spot and ordered a cup of tea.

I then received a call from one of the managers. I thought it was a little bit odd, but I said I was in the hotel and that I would come across and meet him in front of reception. I did so.

In a nutshell, I was being accused of overstaying. To say I was surprised is an understatement. I showed him the emails from the Travel team and the confirmation of the booking for the extra night. I also told him about my conversation with the front desk that morning, but he didn’t seem to believe me.

The manager informed me that the booking had been cancelled overnight. I said that the Travel team had tried to cancel the reservation, but it had been confirmed overnight and was nonrefundable. I reiterated that I had confirmed this with the front desk.

I also informed him that as my corporate credit card from the university was on file there was no issue with paying for the room for an extra night. He then said that the room was double booked. I realised then that to avoid the embarrassment of not having a room available - they wanted me out of the hotel. I reiterated again that I had a confirmation. He said it had been cancelled.

I said well, perhaps I could go to Galway this evening. He said that would be good and he went and checked the train timetable. He returned saying that a train left in a little over half an hour and could I pack up in that time? I was absolutely stunned by this. I should also note that this was being played out in a busy reception area.

Feeling I had no alternative, I headed towards the lift. He came after me with the key. I then realised that this was not a run of the mill glitch but a conscious decision to lock me out of my room.

I got things together quickly and went downstairs and got a taxi to the station. It was absolutely horrible. I’ve been legal academic for over 20 years and travelled extensively in that time. I’ve stayed in all sorts of accommodation and I have never ever had an experience like this and wouldn’t wish it on anyone. And then the Westbury charged the university for the extra night! Funny you can charge for a room with no booking 🤬🤬

What if I had nowhere to go; what if the hotel in Galway hadn’t been so understanding? The Westbury didn’t care. They gave me no choice but to leave, then billed me for this supposedly non-existent booking! Dodgy, dodgy, dodgy. Do better Westbury, this situation could have been dealt with in a much more...

Buyer Beware

Bottom line: I couldn’t use my room, and for a week’s stay they only comped a night.

I never once entered my hotel room for a week’s stay when it wasn’t so hot in the room, that I was immediately sweating. Why? Because the hotel kept turning the air off, even though I left it on; their management never apologized, but doubled down and essentially said, in writing, it was their policy to override the will of their guests to not let the AC run. Their solution was a single day comp and a “we don’t care we lost your business” attitude” - even though I literally couldn’t sleep in the room, at all, and didn’t. As they told my business partner who called afterwards, “You don’t have to bring your business here.” Don’t worry: we won’t.

The Long Story

I’m a professional traveler and luxury travel consultant, and primarily stay in the 5-Star hotel class. This class is full of so-called 5-star hotels that are really real estate businesses with nice locations and restaurants, but who don’t treat individuals customers well (this is one reason I scout locations for my clients) because they do corporate scale business, which is big ticket, based on the 5-star brand.

Such hotels may then treat individual customers badly, believing and it will not have long term business consequences. But it does. Especially when people know what they are doing.

I rarely write public reviews, because I normally write for my clients, not the public, so I only do a public review when something is catastrophic or amazing.

The Westbury is the worst hotel experience I have ever had, not at a 5-Star hotel, but at any hotel. You’d be better off staying in a hostel, because then you know what you’re getting.

It looks luxurious and 5-star. And If you based your impression on the Food and Dining, and the spaces, it sounds convincing. But that’s not the hotel, those are the restaurants, and all of that—the fine-dining at the Wilde, tea in the Gallery, drinks in the Sidecar—is excellent, and my hats off to the lovely staff. But I’ll never stay at a Doyle collection and am telling my client network to avoid all Doyle Collection hotels.

I stayed a week at the Westbury, and told their Senior Sales and Marketing Manager, the day before I checked in, why I was staying: to assess whether to come back and bring my clients.

Every day for three days, when I entered my room it was so hot I immediately was sweating and my clothes were damp, so I literally had to try to turn on the AC, and then leave for an hour so it could cool down. So I finally asked about this, and was given rude treatment by the front desk agent, who informed me I had to leave my card in the room card slot, even when I was gone, to keep the air on, as if I should have known that.

That is unworthy of any hotel, never mind a “luxury” hotel, to make a client keep two keys, then leave one always in, and not tell them this, because they want to save money.

But that is also a not true: leaving your card in it doesn’t not keep the power on.

So I returned to the hotel, which the staff had placed a permanent key and set to 16 C for me, and the room was, as always, sweltering. By this point I was very upset, and the junior assistant manager (the highest manager they bothered to send) who trivialized me and my experience did one good thing: he revealed the truth, that this was their policy: Even with a key in, the AC turns off after 3 hours.

I will never return to stay here and am confident none of my clients will either.

Look at the Westbury’s reviews: this...

From the moment I arrived, it was a masterclass in how not to run a five-star hotel. The adventure began on a Monday afternoon, the golden hour for check-ins—yet somehow, they still seemed utterly unprepared for the concept of guests arriving. The main entrance? Locked. A perplexing start, leading me on a detour through a side entrance and a restaurant, as if I were embarking on some sort of luxury scavenger hunt.

My 'Titanium Status' upgrade was, of course, not complimentary—because what’s the point of elite status if you can’t be charged extra for it? After an unnecessary negotiation session with the front desk, I was finally granted my gracious upgrade (without a fee, how generous).

The room? Ah, a delight for the senses! A lingering cloud of aggressively cheap perfume filled the air, reminiscent of establishments where one typically rents a room by the hour. The pizza box from my first evening remained an honored relic, steadfastly ignored by housekeeping for the entire duration of my stay of four nights. The tea cups, though washed, sat unaccompanied by replenished shortbread—perhaps a new five-star austerity measure?

The bathroom continued the theme of "historic preservation", featuring a sink that drained at a leisurely pace befitting a bygone era and a shower offering the unexpected joy of discovering someone else’s hair. The dimmer switches in the room flickered ominously, like a scene from a budget horror movie, and the pièce de résistance? To turn off the lights, one had to physically get out of bed and make a grand pilgrimage to the main switch by the door, as the light switches near the bed were too old to be working.

The fitness room was a time capsule of antique equipment—an unintentional tribute to the bygone days of exercise. Meanwhile, breakfast at precisely 7 AM (not a second earlier, heaven forbid!) came with stern rebukes for anyone daring to arrive before the sacred hour. Ordering porridge was a bold choice—it took 15 full minutes to prepare, which, in hotel time, translates to “never arrived.”

The ‘Winter Garden’ breakfast experience was a literal one—plastic walls, electric heaters battling the elements, and an ambiance reminiscent of a high-end greenhouse gone wrong. The Wilde restaurant’s seating, once presumably luxurious, had seen better days—perhaps decades ago.

To round it all off, a delightful symphony of midnight music on the first night (Monday, no less!) ensured the full five-star insomniac experience. And the crowning observation? The entire hotel is a relic of another age—old, worn down, and clinging desperately to a past grandeur that its current state no longer supports, just as the old scratched room number on my door, fixed with unprofessionally with an ugly screw. The astronomical price tag has absolutely no relation to the level of service provided, making it an unparalleled exercise in...