Salthill Hotel — Hotel in Galway

We had a bit of a mixed bag at this hotel. 1st off on arrival we loved the lobby, it looks great. Was busy so took a while to get checked in which is understandable. The woman at check-in was very friendly & helpful.

The room we booked was a family room for me, my wife & stepson. Plenty of room in it even though it had a double bed with 2 singles. A few things we noticed were the beds weren't made up great (there was some poor ironing from the laundry company).

There was only a socket on 1 side of our bed, all the rest were on the dressing table opposite the bed, which was a bit of an inconvenience. There was air-conditioning which we weren't expecting which was great to have, as the room was very warm to begin with. The TV wasn't very big, I would guess 28inch, which is small, especially for a family room. Also it wasn't a smart TV which didn't leave us with much to watch. It also didn't have a TV guide.

There was a mini fridge which was very good to have. There was a separate table near the window, but it only had 1 chair which was strange for a family room. The beds were very comfortable, the pillows & duvet were also of great quality. The bathroom was very nice, the only issue would be the shower is in a cove in the bathroom, it has a narrow entry to it, and half the gap has a shower window, so for anyone bigger this may be a tight squeeze.

The room itself wasn't completely clean, the net curtain had 2 smears of blood on it, the mirror in the room itself had drip marks on it. The shower floor had some grime marks on it, the step in to the shower had dirt marks on the side. Some of the skirting boards had dirt marks on them to.

We had food in the Blackrock bar shortly after getting checked in, we got fish & chips, and our wee boy got kids Pizza (Margarita) & a portion of chips. The fish & chips were so nice, and the portions are the biggest we've ever got for the same meal in any restaurants we've been to. The child's pizza was very big, and was so nice also. The chips were so nice. The staff were very pleasant & always checking to make sure everything was OK.

But we did go back to the bar the next day for lunch, and the service wasn't as good from our waitress, she was quite young so maybe it's a younger generation thing. We had to go ask different members of staff for certain things like vinegar etc, we weren't checked on throughout our whole meal. I had to go to the bar to ask for more drinks, to order desert & get our bill at the end. I got the beef burger & chips, the burger was ok. My wife got the chicken fillet burger, which was very good.

The leisure facilities were good in some ways, like the size of the big pool was great, it had lots of space to swim & wasn't too busy. But the pool was cold because of a maintenance issue, I was told by the regulars the pool is usually nice & warm, just bad timing for us sadly, so we couldn't stay in there too long with our child. The sauna & steam room were very good. The hydro pool was cold, the 'hot' tub was cold too. On day 2 the hot tub was warm at least, but the pool still cold. The changing rooms were good, and leisure staff at reception also very nice & friendly.

We ordered room service on night 2, we got a pepperoni pizza, chicken goujons & chips, then a kids sausage & chips. We had asked for salt & vinegar to come with it, which was forgotten so the member of staff had to go back down for that. The pepperoni pizza was soggy in the centre which wasn't great, but closer to the edge the pizza was nice. The goujons weren't great, they were like ones you'd cook at home. And the child's sausages were very poor (pic included). They were very dark looking, he tried them & had to spit it out.

The breakfast was nice, but I was shocked there was no potato bread, or soda farls. Staff were brilliant at breakfast, always checking on you.

We paid €445 for 2 nights B&B for 2 adults & 1 child. We definitely enjoyed ourselves, and staff were pleasant & friendly. But some things need sorted before I'd consider it...

Sad to say we won't be back. We visited December 2023 and we loved it but service in the bar was not so great. So February 2025 we decided to visit again for my sons birthday (on the last visit he loved the pool) when booking we noticed the pool would be closed the time of his birthday so we booked for the following week to avoid this. The day before our visit the hotel rung me and informed me the pool would be closed for maintainance... MASSIVELY DISAPPOINTING!! This time we also brought an additional Guest, so we booked a family room and another room for one other person. Our family room was crazy hot, beyond dark as our window was facing a wall and WiFi was horrendous, not to mention makeup stains on the curtains. Yet our other family member who had double room had such a lovely bright and breezy room with 2 sinks in the bathroom yet ours didn't even have a bath for a family room. Now all this could still have given the hotel a 3 star rating until we had dinner in the bar downstairs, we stood at the sign that said wait to be seated, we were easily passed 10 times by staff who not only didn't look at us but couldn't even ask to wait a moment. When we finally were seated the service was beyond bad, the girl serving us had poor English and no clue what she was doing, we ordered burgers and chips, explained we only wanted the cheese and bacon on the burger (no salad or sauce) and she couldn't grasp it, she asked if we wanted the beef? After ordering I said to my husband 'I just know it's going to be wrong' and what do you know. 3 times the food was sent back wrong. Ignoring all that the food was just OK, nothing special at all. Ordered alcoholic drinks and she asked what is malibu, brought coke instead of coke zero, never came back to see if the food was OK or if we needed anything else. And in all honesty I felt a little bad for her. My husband paid and when we went to leave she decided to stand at the bar and talk to another member of staff about us in her own language ( here's a tip for you IRYNA P, learn to speak English and when you do speak in your own language remember some people also speak in other languages and can understand when you're bad mouthing them) we paid a total of €141.50 for our meal and drinks when we'd been to restaurants off site and paid half and got better service. We stayed another night and didn't return here for food. The following night after a walk in the wet and cold we stopped in for a takeaway hot drink the man serving us (had braids in his hair) was very nice and friendly but was being bossed around and his job taken over by another member of staff who's first language isn't English.... I should mention about 90% of the staff in the bar don't speak English either as a first language or very well. So if you're looking for good food, good service or infact basic service best not to go to this place.

Such a shame because we loved it...

Wonderful stay at the Salthill Hotel. We booked a one night stay to celebrate our wedding & birthday anniversaries. We arrived very early as we wanted to spend time on the promenade and amazingly our room was already available for checkin by 11.30am. The King Seaview room was huge, with floor to ceiling balcony view, large sofa area, dining area, long work table, separate wardrobe, hallway, large bathroom and king bed. Bathrobes provided and ample towels. They also did a wonderful surprise gesture for us and brought over to our room a complimentary dessert plate with happy anniversary written on it. Really nice touch. We loved the bar area and terrace overlooking the sea. Had our morning coffee there. Spectacular views. Breakfast was really tasty with buffet style; with full Irish, cereals, bakery, cold meat, juices etc. We could also get pancakes and fillet of salmon as orders. One thing I would say here is have a menu at the table. As I think almost every other guest did not know about ordering pancakes & salmon, unless like us they read on the TV screen in the bedroom. In fact one of the breakfast staff was not aware fish was a breakfast menu until checking with the chef. Would also be good to have more yoghurt & fruits apart from fruit salad. We didn't eat at the restaurant for lunch or dinner so unable to comment. We did try the Ocean fitness spa area which was a bit underwhelming. Small section at the back of main swimming pool. The jacuzzi area was big but had to press button every 6-7 mins to start again which was annoying. The sauna was good. The steam room was frustrating as had to wait too long for it start everytime. And only 2 seating areas in the spa section. The hydro pool area was taken up by families so wasn't really space for couples to enjoy (not sure if maybe shorten family time in evening). The location of the Hotel was perfect. Right on the Salthill promenade for walks & beaches. A wonderful garden memorial area beside hotel. Do check it out. Very peaceful & tranquil area. You also have amusement park, aquarium, leisure center, and Salthill town with it's many restaurants, bars, cinema within walking distance. And even walking to Galway city center can be done within 40mins if you enjoy a stroll. Or the bus 401 is right on the doorstep to hotel and only about 15mins to center of Galway. All in all highly recommend Salthill Hotel. Wonderful stay, wonderful location, sea outside the door. And thanks to the staff for making our anniversary celebration a...