MICHAEL PARSONS stays at Carlton Hotel Dublin Airport
A SLEW OF hotels have opened in recent years around Dublin Airport. Congestion at the terminal, overcrowded car parks and the sheer unpredictable awfulness of early-morning traffic, especially on the M50, have resulted in more and more people – even Dubliners – choosing to stay close to the airport the night before a flight. Flying out of this country has become such an unpleasantly stressful experience that waking up just a few minutes’ walk, or a free shuttle bus, from the departure lounge can help make that holiday or business trip just a bit more relaxed. The hotels also offer secure parking at competitive rates.
The Carlton is a step up from the budget option offered by a number of competitors in the area. It stands on Old Airport Road, a few minutes from the airport, but signposting, as usual in Ireland, is atrocious.
For businesspeople flying into Dublin for meetings, the hotel claims to be “a 15-minute journey” from “the Central Business Districts and the International Financial Services Centre”, which will surprise hard-pressed commuters but might just be possible at the crack of dawn. More realistically, it also claims that “all of the business parks are easily reached from the nearby motorways”.
The hotel has a strong business following, but attractive stay-park-and-fly packages are also of interest to holiday travellers. If you’re going away for a week, for example, a winter eight-day park-relax-and-fly offer costs €145 for a double room with eight days’ parking and use of the shuttle bus to departures (every 30 minutes). A family room for two adults and two children costs €180.
The hotel’s website has a range of offers and permutations, whether your trip overseas is for one night or two weeks. Breakfast, which is served from 6.30am, is not included in these rates, but you can book it in advance.
Plaques at the entrance show that the hotel has been accorded four stars by the AA and has been “independently assessed” by Georgina Campbell’s Ireland guide – though there’s no mention of what she said. Ireland’s star-ratings system for hotels continues to be a confusing dog’s dinner despite a recent overhaul by the Irish Hotels Federation and Fáilte Ireland.
Check-in is efficient. The decor in the public areas and my spacious soundproofed room is a soothing mix of dark wood, gold, cream and what interior designers call chocolate. But the bathroom doesn’t have a walk-in shower and the television is not flat-screen – both should surely now be standard in a four-star business hotel.
Some of the upper-level rooms have balconies and spectacular views over the runway, which might excite plane-spotters. Others overlook the car park. But, like all airport hotels, this is not a place to dawdle.
On a midweek evening the clientele is the usual mix of multinational transients found at airports worldwide. The Clouds Restaurant is as deserted as the dining room on the Mary Celeste. Although the tables are set for dinner, a lonesome waiter claims, bizarrely, that it is “closed for renovation”. (It has since reopened as a private function room.) He suggests trying Kittyhawks Bar Bistro, on the ground floor.
The website boasts that “all our dishes are cooked to order and the results are consistently high-quality food” using “fresh, locally-grown produce as well as the finest Irish meats and locally-caught fish”. But a serving of plaice and chips was humdrum pub fare that cost €17.95, “service not included”. There was no time for breakfast the following morning.
Carlton Hotels is an Irish-owned company that operates eight four-star hotels around the country. The chain runs a loyalty programme, called Affinity by Carlton, which it describes as its way of “saying ‘thank you’ for your business”. For every room night you book in any Carlton Hotel, you get one point in an online Affinity account. These points can be exchanged for rewards such as free flights with Aer Arann, shopping vouchers for Debenhams and spa breaks with Carlton hotels.
WhereCarlton Hotel Dublin Airport, Old Airport Road, Cloghran, Co Dublin, 01-8667500, www.carltondublinairport.com.
WhatFour-star hotel close to the airport with secure parking and free shuttle bus to and from the terminal building.
Rooms100, including seven junior suites and a penthouse suite.
Best rates€79 for room only in an internet sale. A €130 "corporate special" offers "a superior balcony room with lots of extra work space, fruit plate, mineral water and newspaper on arrival". This rate includes a full buffet breakfast. See website for stay-park-and-fly packages.
Food and drinkKittyhawks Bar Bistro serves breakfast from 6.30am until 10.30am. Also offers a carvery lunch and a bistro menu in the evening. The rooftop Clouds is a private function room with full restaurant facilities.
AccessThe hotel says "if you require a disabled guest room . . . please ask us."
Child-friendlinessNo special facilities for children.
AmenitiesThe hotel can accommodate up to 300 banqueting guests or up to 550 delegates at a cocktail reception or launch. Seventeen boardrooms can be hired on an hourly basis.