My partner and I have just completed a short tour of Europe - Dublin was one of our stop off points with the purpose of our visit to the city being for a concert held at the Iveagh Gardens. The Jackson Court Hotel was the perfect hotel for this as it is located literally across the road - stumbling distance!!
I initially booked through booking.com but then found a marginally cheaper rate on hostelbookers.com so went with them instead. Both websites clearly advise whilst booking that the hotel is situated above a nightclub and give you plenty of advice warning about the extreme noise you may hear in the night. We weren't bothered about the noise, we knew we would be exhausted after our travelling and would probably sleep through any bumps in the night and hey, there's always earplugs, right?
When we arrived, the receptionist advised us that due to a technical error, we had been upgraded to a superior room. Alarm bells started ringing (I had studied Tripadvisor reviews religiously before choosing this hotel and couldn't remember whether the superior rooms were the "bad" rooms or the "good" rooms. Anyway, I reluctantly agreed.
Turns out our room was in the building next to the actual hotel - you had to use your key to enter the building and the door was big, heavy and secure. The entrance hall was lovely! Large vintage mirror, creaky floorboards (I think this is perhaps a listed building??) it was like being in somebody's house. Our room was immediately to our right on the ground floor of this separate building. When we entered, we were AMAZED!
The room was large and airy, lots of natural light (the room faced out onto the street and had two large windows and both net curtains and thick curtains to give you privacy), the decor was really pleasing to the eye in beiges and golds and browns. So relaxing. Kind of safari themed mixed with a little bit of Egyptian. The bed was huge, soft, crisp sheets, lovely bedding, attractive bedframe - there were wall hangings, distressed wood style wardrobes and bedside cabinets, artwork, flatscreen tv, lamps - after all of our travelling it was a haven of tranquility and just what we needed. Even the ceiling had original coving, period features AND a chandelier - all of this for 50 EUR, per night, for 2 people in a superior room (we noticed the rack rate on the wall and it was a LOT more expensive than this, thank God for hotel booking sites!!!!)
The bathroom was similarly pleasant. Lots of room. Clean toilet with a good flush. Plenty of fluffy white towels. When using the shower, I DID initially panic as the water was ice cold to begin with, but with a bit of playing around (turning it on and off and moving the lever from left to right) soon got it working, boiling hot and powerful. (Incidentally, there had been a plumbing problem at the hotel the day before according to friends of mine who also stayed here and perhaps the after-effects of this were still evident, but it was no problem for us, sadly, they weren't so lucky and had cold water for the entire duration of their stay but they were in the main hotel building not the annex where we were)
In terms of quality of sleep, well, we were so tired, we practically passed out at 10pm, however, we did wake up in the middle of the night briefly and yes, the room did feel like it was shaking, the bass from the nightclub was very loud, but the hotel actually issue you with a statement about the noise and as I said earlier, we were clearly warned about it by our booking agents, so no one has a right to moan to be fair.
A little note on the staff - we didn't really deal with anyone or have any problems other than receptionists (we didn't have breakfast/evening meal/use the nightclub etc) so can't say much. The female receptionist who booked us in (long blonde hair) was very nice and wished us a good stay. 10 out of 10 for her. The male receptionist who checked us out was perfectly nice, but sadly, looked and acted like he had just woken up and it took him several minutes to do basic things like get my credit card the right way around, put it in the machine, etc - he slurred his words slightly, one can only hope he wasn't drunk on the job! ;)
Left luggage facility is fine. We had a couple of rucksacks which needed to be left behind reception for a good 17 hours or so after we'd checked out. No problem at all.
Overall, (from reading other reviews of this hotel and from listening to the experiences of my friends who were all staying here with us albeit in the main hotel rather than the annexe) it seems my partner and I were VERY lucky to have the wonderful experience we did and I don't particulary wan't to tarnish this review with other people's opinions as I'm meant to be reviewing my OWN experience which was VERY GOOD. However, I would be reluctant to return to this hotel unless I had a CAST IRON guarantee I would be in the annexe and thus, have the pleasure of the up to date, modern rooms, and not the more hostel-standard rooms my friends experienced. Because the hotel probably CAN'T guarantee this, I would look elsewhere, but I wish Jackson Court all the best as we personally had no problems and I hope other reviewers who have had good experiences speak up because there is real potential with this hotel, management just need to give it a good shake up.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
