The Plaza Hotel — Hotel in South Dublin

I had a very bizarre experience staying at this hotel from the 19th - 22nd.

Let's start with the good: There's a shopping center nearby, which is convenient, although confusing to get to. There is also a tram stop directly to the city center within walking distance (easier to access by going through shopping center, but have to confusingly walk around when mall is closed). Takes ~45-60 minutes to get to the center on the tram, but is an easy journey.

For the bad: First, very confusing to find the hotel lobby entrance. It's on the BACK SIDE of where unfamiliar taxi drivers will drop u off, and you have to walk around the entire parking lot to find it if dropped off in the wrong spot. There is NO SIGNAGE to tell u where to enter for the hotel.

Second, I paid in advance for early checkin because I knew I would arrive early. At checkin, I was told my room wasn't ready yet. I explained to the receptionist that that was fine, but I purchased early check in. After checking again, she confirmed and said there was a room ready.

The WORST: I couldnt get the toilet in the room to flush on day 1 without an obnoxious number of attempts and some rocket science. By day 2, I couldn't flush the toilet at all.

The evening of my first day, I called down to reception and was told there were no other rooms available, and maintenance wasn't available until the morning. They ended the call by asking, "Is there anything you'd like for me to do?"

The next morning, I called back down to reception, and asked if maintenance would be coming. I was told maintenance hours started in 5 minutes, and would be sent up. After no updates for 3 hrs, I left for sight seeing. I also informed housekeeping of the issue, but was told it was a maintenance issue. Ultimately, i ended up using the downstairs café toilet for my stay.

That evening, reception couldnt confirm if maintenance visited my room, but to call down if I still had issues. The on call manager was sent up after i confirmed the issue was unresolved.

The manager had no issues flushing the toilet in my room. In response, i tried to flush it SEVERAL TIMES in front of him, and he OBSERVED that it would not flush for me. He confirmed there were no tricks to it, and I was otherwise attempting "correctly".

He gave me a suggestion that still didnt work. In response, the manager flushes it himself again, and then just walks out of my room WITHOUT A WORD. There was no explanation offered. No next steps. He just LEFT after visually confirming that for some strange reason I could not flush my own toilet.

At this point, im dumbfounded, because he simply left without so much as an apology, and with no resolution. I was left wondering if he expected me to call up for a manager every time I needed to flush my toilet???

That was the last time I flagged the issue, and simply proceeded to use any other toilet in the country when I needed to, as I had no trouble flushing ANY other toilet. Unfortunately, I didn't have access to another room to confirm if all of the toilets were this stubborn, or just the one in my room.

On my last day, I tried a couple more "methods", and found one to consistently work. It required me to do the OPPOSITE of what the manager suggested -- flush very quickly, with an abnormal amount of force, and hold the handle down at the bottom until the flushing started. I can say, I've never needed to use rocket science to flush a toilet before.

I explained this bizarre toilet experience during checkout to a different manager on call, who was very pleasant (despite another customer checking out before me being very rude about a different issue with his room) and handed me his card for a follow up email. Unfortunately, I am writing this review because after 2 emails, I have not gotten any response from that manager about...

So recently I stayed in this Hotel in Dublin and here's what I thought of it...

I happened to have to stayed overnight in Tallaght on the 20/03/14 paid €51 through ebookers which I thought was cheap for a 4 star hotel. I can honestly say that it is by far the worst hotel I have EVER stayed in! I could find fault in just about everything so I wrote this list....

The receptionist at check-in requested ID and when I produced my Garda Age Card she responded with a cringed up facial expression and said to me "do you have anything better than that like passport or drivers license" I happened not to have either of these on me at the time so she responded with "it will have to do"

The room I got was severely dated and I would presume it was not renovated since the hotel opened in 1998 which is 16 years ago. This is suppose to be a 4*star hotel.

Disappointed with the room I later went for a bite to eat in the hotel bar, What a mistake. I had to approach the waitress and ask her if they were still serving bar food which she responded "yes" handed me a Menu and continued in what she was doing. I had to ask could I sit anywhere in the bar I found this most unprofessional there was no smile, no greeting, no interaction with I the customer. I wondered what the problem was the bar was quiet meaning No excuse for bad service! I ordered a 10 oz steak with chips and a pint of Heineken. The pint was flat so I had to go to the bar and an get the Barman to put a decent head on it. The food took 25 mins from the time of ordering to the time I was served it. The steak was like one out of a supermarket full of grizzle and fat and was very though. The chips were under cooked. At €21.90 for my dinning experience I felt ripped off. The waitress was so disengaging not once coming over to see was everything ok or if I needed another drink. She never asked if everything was ok with my meal when I was finished. I did not complain at the time as I was so annoyed I just wanted to leave as soon as possible.

After going back to my room I found it unusual to find the TV not having any digital channel whatsoever! Are we in the 21st Century? TV was also small and I found myself squinting a lot of the time while watching it.

There are no plugs beside the headboard so I could not plug in my iPhone or laptop while in bed which I found most bizarre.

As I lay down to sleep I was keep awake from the sound of music blurring from the hotels nightclub. I was staying on the 2nd floor so god help the poor guests staying on the floor below me. Not able to take anymore of the noise at around 1:30 am I rang down to reception who informed me that the nightclub would continue until 3:00 am so the agreement was made for me to move rooms but to leave my belongings in my original room and collect them in the morning. The second room I had was on the 3rd floor and to my horror there was a noise coming from a generator outside, the radiator and the busy road beside the hotel. There was also outside lights illuminating the curtained window of my room.

At this stage I contemplated ringing a taxi and booking into another hotel albeit now at 2:00 am.

After getting about 2.5 hours sleep I rushed back to my original room at 9:30 am in fear of the cleaning staff entering it and removing my belongings. Sure enough I got a knock on the door at about 10:00 am from housekeeping thinking I had departed. Dread to think what they would have done had I not returned.

On checkout the receptionist apologised for my room change but never asked me was everything else ok. Just as well because I could have complained for hours.

I hope you find my review to be accurate, honest and I would appreciate if a member of the management try and explain about my experience at The Plaza...

Had the opportunity to stay in the Plaza Hotel over a weekend recently.

Overall the hotel is to a good 4 star standard but there were a number of issues that took from the experience.

The reception area is well laid out and the reception staff are extremely courteous and welcoming. The foyer itself is welcoming, however some more focus on cleaning might be helpful. We moved a chair from one coffee able to an other and it was obvious that the chair hadn’t been moved to allow the floor to be vacuumed for some time.

The room was clean and well laid out. The air conditioning was a bit of a challenge however as it seemed to reset to a balmy 26’ on a regular basis

The Alder Cafe Bar was excellent. The food was to a very high standard and portions were generous. The staff were excellent.

The Mill Restaurant was not at the same standard as the Cafe Bar however. On one morning the hot food and plates were cold. The hot water supplied for tea making was tepid at best. The catering staff appeared to be doing their best but seemed to be coping rather than providing a service. Having said that the were courteous and helpful. The management of the restaurant however seemed to have a different approach to that throughout the rest of the hotel. To us as costumers, we got the impression that we were more a commodity or people to be dealt with rather than customers of the hotel. This was...