Luck of the Irish with this one! (Paramount Hotel)

Member Name: Lools_24

Product:	Paramount Hotel
Date:	18/03/09 (98 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good location, fantastic service

Disadvantages: Noisy

The hotel is located in central Dublin. The hotel décor is 1930's and promoted as a boutique hotel. Despite the 1930's theme, with muted colours and a lot of black and white the hotel is modern and very clean. The hotel is in good condition and the public areas are kept very clean and tidy.

Location
The hotel is located in Temple Bar's West End next to lots of bars and restaurants. It's about a 30 second walk to the banks of the River Liffy. The hotel is about a 10 minute walk to Grafton Street and O'Connell Street where you will find an abundance of shops. The hotel entrance is on a side street however from the main street the hotel is visable and the hotel entrance is signposted.


Price
The price for the room was 80 euros which worked out at about £72 for a double room for one night. Breakfast was not included in the price but for an extra 7 euros per person you could get breakfast which is served in the bistro. We did not have any food in the hotel so I cannot comment on the food and restaurant service unfortunately.


Room

The décor was neutral colours which made the room warm and inviting but because it was quite minimalist which I like as the room did not look fussy and cluttered. The room was in good condition and did look like it had been kept well and was very clean.

Each room has a computer modem point with free wi-fi a multi-channel tv, in house video and tea and coffee making facilities.

I did find the temperature of the room could be a bit of an issue. If you leave the radiator on the room gets extremely hot and you will have to open the windows. When we arrived in the room and the radiator had been left on full, making it like a sauna when we opened the door. The room was so hot in fact that the dressing table which was above the large radiator was even hot to touch

The bathroom was huge and very clean. Tiled and neutral colours so it looked clean and modern. There was a shower bath. The shower was very easy to use and remained a constant temperature with a strong flow. The towels in the bathroom were nice and fluffy white ones which was nice as sometimes towels in hotels are like sandpaper. There was a huge mirror which was great to get ready in front of with good light to put make up on.


The room we stayed in was on a corner and was extremely spacious with two windows facing different aspects so we got a great view. One issue we had was at about 3am there was a lot of noise from outside from people leaving bars. The windows are not soundproof and it was very noisy. We stayed on a Thursday night and went to bed at 2am so I imagine if you were staying in the hotel on a weekend and were wanting an early night you may not get the best nights sleep!

Staff/ Service
The staff in the hotel are probably one of the friendliest in any hotel I have stayed in. They could not do enough for us. We arrived in Dublin and 10.30am and went straight to our hotel. Check in was meant to be a 2pm so we asked if we could leave our bags somewhere in the hotel. The man at reception said that rather than do that we could check in early at no extra charge. He also spent about 10 minutes talking to us and showing us on a map where things were in Dublin, recommending bars to go to as drinks in certain bars in Dublin are extortionate. He also gave us a supply of vouchers for money off to tourist attractions, restaurants and bars.

When we came to check out at 11am, we left our bags at reception and the staff were happy to let us leave our bags until 5pm as we had a late flight home. The weather was awful and snow was falling heavily, the hotel gave my boyfriend an umbrella to use for the day. When we came to collect our bags the snow was still falling heavily and the receptionist told my boyfriend to keep the umbrella as we had to stand outside in the snow at the bus stop for a bus to take us to the airport. Only a little gesture but it showed how genuine the staff were and had great customer service.

Overall
The hotel is a great base to stay in Dublin and very reasonably priced. Rooms are clean. Location is great, the rooms are noisy as the location is central to Temple bar and close to a number of pubs, but this is the case for most of the hotels in this area; in fact this hotel has less bars around it than other hotels in the Temple Bar area. I would definitely recommend and if I return to Dublin I will be staying in this hotel.

Summary: Great hotel in central Dublin, very good value for money