Before going to Dublin for a long weekend with friends we had been warned that it was an expensive place to visit. This was proved to be true when I started looking for somewhere for us to stay. We were looking for somewhere affordable but a bit posher than a hostel. My search led me to the Ripley Court Hotel. The reasons I chose it were:
- proximity to O'Connel Street
- availability of a triple room
- breakfast was included in the price
We had three nights (over a long weekend) for 500 Euros which I thought was pretty steep for a two star hotel, considering that all three of us were sharing a room. (Hint: staying from Saturday to Tuesday instead of Friday to Monday would have saved a fortune - week day rates were only 20 Euro per person!)
On arrival we noticed that a train line ran right outside the hotel so my immediate concern was that we were going to be constantly disturbed by trains going past at all times of this night. Thankfully, however this proved not to be the case.

The façade of the hotel is slightly dated but not run down in any way. The décor in the reception area is quite traditional and looked like it had been redecorated relatively recently.
The welcome we received from staff was warm and we promptly made our way to our room. The first thing we noticed about the room was that it was freezing, but apart from that the room looked nice enough. Closer inspection however revealed quite a few flaws. The side of the bath was falling off, there were numerous dubious looking stains on the carpet, there were holes in the wall and quite a bit of rust in the bathroom. We put the heater on straight away and headed out. On our return to the room that evening it still hadn't heated up properly but had become bearable.

Breakfast the next morning was our next real taste of the hotel. On offer was a full English and full continental breakfast. Basically this meant sausage, black/white pudding, scrambled eggs, bacon, bread and cereal. The food was fine but the set-up in the dining area was bizarre to say the least. First of all you collect your tray and then walk along in front of where the food is served from. The only problem is that there is no where for you to set your tray as food is being passed to you. The same issue arises when you get bread and try to serve yourself coffee. You end up having to balance a food loaded tray in one hand while pouring coffee with the other. This could be easily resolved by the hotel putting a narrow shelf in front of all the food.
The hotel also has a restaurant. We didn't eat there, the canteenesque feel of breakfast having put us off. The food on offer was cheap and there looked to be a good selection however.

Overall, I felt that the hotel didn't offer excellent value but I think that might have been the case wherever we were staying in Dublin. We had an enjoyable stay there, although that was probably due to the fact that we didn't spend too much time there over the weekend.