Holiday Inn Dublin City Centre

This hotel is supposed to be in the «City Center». In fact, it is very far from major attractions. Staff is not very accommodating. The rooms are nothing special. I had better experience in other Holiday Inn Hotels.

Reasonable prices and the staff was lovely. Can’t really recommend the breakfast buffet, but the attached restaurant does a fine Caesar salad and whatnot. Easy walk to Trinity College and all the little shops you’d want to peruse in city center Dublin.

(2.5 Stars) «City Centre» seems a little bit of a stretch as it is on the eastern fringe of the SouthEast district and a 15 minute walk to just the east side of Trinity Collage — 5 to 10 more to the true center.
That out of the way, what is the last thing a traveler wants to hear the day before they hop a flight overseas? That their hotel is no longer part of the chain and is now independent. This hotel is now «The Pearse Hotel». There was no explanation as to exactly why.
The room left some things to be desired: the door chain was broken, the TV on a swivel mount always swiveled to face away from the main room, no fan (or any circulation) in the bathroom that has seen much better days, a radiator in the bathroom that was always on, a shower-​head that sprayed water onto the ceiling if you forget to re-​tighten the head before each use, a window (overlooking a busy street) that didn’t shut all the way. We actually checked in without showing a single piece of ID and soon discovered that the luggage storage room was self-​service and not secure. As it’s Europe, I don’t mind the no free Wi-​Fi anywhere in the hotel.
No actual hotel parking, although they have a very reasonable € 10 per day agreement with the parking garage around the corner.
For the most part, the staff was nice; limited but nice. We only ever saw but one person in the lobby/​reception. It made for some longer waits as that person could get busy, but again, always nice.
A modest breakfast is served in the restaurant/​lounge that is attached via the lobby — sometimes it was included, sometimes not. Because of the «not», we discovered that there are also quite a few other nice breakfast places close by around the neighborhood.
In their defense, there was a lot of work being done to remove the Holiday Inn branding and convert to the independent hotel. I hope this extends to the rooms as well. My guess, however, is that next time I’m in Dublin I’ll choose somewhere else.

While in Dublin for the weekend I had a chance to check out the Holiday Inn on Pearse Street. I have stayed at many Holiday Inn hotels in America and I must say, the one in Dublin is actually a bit nicer than most of them, strangely enough. The staff were brilliant and the rooms were very nice. They unlike many hotels in Dublin were very spacious and had all the basics one would expect in a hotel. My only issue with the hotel was the location, and that is a minor issue. It is about an 8 minute walk to Temple Bar or the City Centre from here, but that is the only thing I could complain about. Taxis stop out front every few minutes if you are not inclined for walking, but I walked it to and from the hotel the whole time I was there as when the weather is nice it’s no bother.