Radisson Blu Hotel, Cork — Hotel in Municipal District of Cobh

We stayed at the Radisson Blu in Cork from the 14th-17th of July 2022. We paid €632 with breakfast. The overall experience was dismal, weddings everyday which commandeered staff/hotel services at the expense of other the guests. No bottled water provided in the rooms of a 4 star hotel. The window of our room was near a filthy roof. Some of the lighting fixtures in the room weren't working rendering the room dark past daylight and when you wanted to close the curtains. The shower setup resulted in the bathroom floor being flooded with each use and created a health and safety hazard. The key to the room didn't work I had to go back to the reception to resolve the situation. The hallways had very limited markings for directions, a fellow guest asked me for assistance to find the lift. In the main reception area children of the wedding parties were put to sleep on the couches of the main foyer totally inappropriate for any hotel and no evidence of parental supervision and staff doing nothing about this. I ate in the restaurant on the 14th and the 15th, my experience on the 14th lead me to believe that perhaps they were excessively busy and overwhelmed therefore not being able to provide a good service. However my experience on the 15th cemented my opinion that this restaurant needs to be immediately shut down as it is devoid of any culinary or managerial input. The restaurant the is called the Brassier at the Radisson Blu Hotel. On the first night I was served a pork chop, it was the hardest, saltiest and driest piece of pork I've ever experienced it was accompanied by lumpy gravy granules and two small slivers of asparagus classified as a vegetable portion. Desert wasn't too bad but clearly bought in. On the second night all my expectations were exceeded that this restaurant is not fit for purpose and that this hotel should not have a 4 star hotel rating and be part of the Radisson Blu Hotel group. I ordered a fish, it was completely riddled with bones, my son ordered an 8 ounze steak which the server told us was the chef's recommendation for the price of €28 it was flabby, fatty, with a lot of grizzle and very hard to cut through it was addorned with two limp pieces of asparagus and a small portion of skinny limp chips. The table was sticky to the touch and it was near to impossible to get the attention of staff to do anything, the table wasn't cleaned at all between courses. It took 4 requests to get a jug of miwadi which when it arrived was lukewarm without ice and barely any flavour of miwadi from it, and charged for it. The desert spoons and napkins were laid down on the dirty table next to the remnants of the main course on the table. My desert was stale and looked about a week old and was tiny in portion, it was €7.50. I returned it and was offered an alternative without so much as an apology. The meal without alcoholic beverages cost almost €80 on that occasion. Glancing around the restaurant I observed another patron walking up to the waiter requesting that their table be cleaned. A short while later the same patron was observed standing with an empty jug leaving his table and going to the bar looking to have it refilled and nobody paying attention. The french doors were opened as it was a warm evening, guests were congregating outside smoking with the smell of smoke wafting into the restaurant when people were dining. The staff seemed miserable, it was very difficult to get their attention or engage them in conversation. All actions on their part were purely rudimentary. When you enter the Brassier people drinking and chatting at the bar appear to congregate a short distance from the entrance door. When guests would arrive for dinner they would have to make their way through this congregation in order to be checked in for dinner. This is not in keeping with a 4 star hotels standard. The reception staff were professional as well as breakfast staff, most especially the room cleaners were outstanding they...

All I can say is avoid like the plague. I received a gift card for The Radisson Blu Spa for a Cancer Massage treatment that has been advertised time and time again. I called and made the appointment for a weeks time. When I arrived for my appointment at my allocated time, I was brought into a room, asked to fill out a sheet with my details and history (standard in all spas). I was left in the room for 10 minutes when the masseuse came into the room looking quite panicked. I asked her what the issue was and she told me that I had been double booked, but on top of that, they don't even offer this specific cancer massage as they have sent all the products back to the manufacturer.

The part I can't understand is if I was double booked, why was I brought into the room in the first place to fill out a form and secondly, why did the receptionist not know this information when I made the booking?

She stood there and shrugged her shoulders and passed me off to the Gym Manager Michael Grace. He apologized for the inconvenience (which it was as I travelled for 40 minutes to get here) he told me they could fit me in at 4.30pm (it was currently 11am) if I wanted to have complimentary afternoon tea in the mean time... It is beyond me how someone could sit and drink tea for that length of time?

I asked for the voucher to be refunded to me in cash which he said he would do after he spoke to his manager about it but regardless I could keep the voucher to use again. On top of being ill, I was left sitting in the foyer for 40 minutes, waiting for a lift.

The following day I receive a phone call to say that it was not possible to receive the cash back ? I was promised and offered the world the day prior, a complimentary afternoon tea, my €60 cash and also my existing spa voucher, but when the Spa Manager called me, I was made out to be a liar. Asked me for proof of a booking email that I never got. She told me without an email there is no appointment, like I was meant to know this? I explained I called the receptionist and I was given a time and date which I showed up at. Regardless of "protocol" I was brought into a room to fill out a form and I was asked was treatment I was receiving. If there was no appointment for me, why was I taken into the room? I was also told the products weren't sent back to supplier, there was just no masseuse qualified to do those massages and I should go to limerick to avail of the voucher there. ???

I have not been compensated for my time that they wasted or the way I was treated being a cancer patient and practically called a liar. I have been treated with the upmost disrespect and empty promises just to get rid of me. I think it's an absolute joke that I was told to go to limerick, as if it's only a stones throw away, to avail of the offers that I booked in for in Cork. I explained to the manager that with my health, I do not have time to travel to limerick and it was enough of a hassle to get to little island.

I was looking to plan a wedding here but with the level of organization between every member of staff I have had an encounter with, I think id be better off searching elsewhere to avoid the hassle. Incompetent and...

This was maybe one of the most inconsistent experiences I've had at a hotel. So much potential, and yet many misses primarily due to service.

The positives were the bed which was large and comfy, maybe one of the best beds I've slept on, especially in Europe. Also, the spa itself (assuming you book in advance, more on that later) is very nice with great masseuses who provided a calm environment and a quality massage.

Sadly that's really where the positives ended. Most of our interactions with staff could be summed up as a bit dismissive or uninterested. Our check in agent seemed distracted and provided minimal information other than our room number and to call if we want to book breakfast.

At the newly designed/renovated Brasserie restaurant which they advertise even on the motorway as a new experience was a disorganised experience at best... When arriving I let them know it was my wife's birthday. The hostess/server said they'd arrange for "some candles". We had a mix of four different servers who went from asking us multiple times in the first few minutes about our drink order, to no servers showing up at all in the last half hour to ask if we wanted more drinks/food/the bill, while missing an item we had ordered, and no candles or birthday acknowledgments as previously arranged. Finally I had to walk over to a different side of the restaurant to get a different server to bring our bill, and she was quite pleasant and attentive. If only we had that service the entire time it would have been a much different experience!

As previously mentioned, the Spa is great. But make sure you book well in advance, or you may not be able to experience it at all as a guest. Also, since they do not support online bookings where you can see availability, you have to email or call. I emailed thinking it would be the easiest way to go, but after a lot of back and fourth it took a lot of fishing to find availability. Similar to the customer service everywhere else in the hotel, it was often very short answers towards specific days or times, and no proactive solutions or suggestions.

The aspect that was the most dissapointing was the hydratherapy pools. What appeared online as a nice circuit of jets and a relaxing atmosphere ended up being a pool with half the jets and features not functioning, and a bunch of kids having a water fight. Also I know it's a common practice in Ireland, but most visitors from out of country probably wouldn't know that a swimming cap is required to be worn, and charging at the door for one seems a bit silly when it's not outlined on the site anywhere.

We booked on points, so the value for money wasn't as much a concern, but I do feel like I wasted them regardless. Hearing some have paid almost €300 a night is shocking! As I'm usually writing positive reviews about Radisson stays (just wrote one about the Radisson in Brussels), this was a really dissapointing stay. I hope they make improvements to provide better value for the costs...