We booked a one night dine ans stay free offer for a romantic night away. The pool and room were lovely and I must compliment the changing rooms, which were very clean. The bed in our room was a very small double bed so we ended up bringing a single bed from the other side of the room over and pushing it against the double to have enough room for the two of us. The reason for my low rating is my absolute disgust at how our meal and our breakfast went in the restaurant. We had booked for 8 o' clock and were seated as soon as we arrived and this is where the attention ended. As a personal issue I found the menu quite limited, we ended up both ordering the steak which had an extra 5euro charge. I chose the parfait for starter and was very disappointed, it was really not nice and I have eaten parfait many times before and never had this issue. When the plates were cleared we weren't asked was everything was ok, despite the fact that my plate had only a tiny bite taken from it! We had seen many tables being served beautiful looking plates of steak on sizzling platters and were dumbfounded when our own arrived. They came on a plate which was covered in large lola rossa leaves. There was more lettuce than steak on the plate and the entire dish lacked the dramatic entrance all the other diners had received. There was a distinct lack of sizzle and when we examined my partner's steak there was an even bigger disappointment, his steak was so small. No-one came to check on us again, so we were unable to ask why ours did not come on the sizzling hot plates, especially as we had not only paid 45euro for our dine and stay package but we had also agreed to the extra 5euro supplement for our steaks. The dinner was dismal, and my own steak had a huge section of fat which made much of it inedible. Once again our plates were cleared without being checked and we were given dessert menus, this time the waiter actually came to our table and handed them to us and walked away without even speaking to us! We were left for ages before our orders were taken. When they arrived we were left absolutely speechless- my cool not hot apple crumble was literally a two inch by one inch rectangle with none of the custard as advertised. I asked for custard when I caught a waitresses eye and when she brought it, it was freezing cold, straight from the fridge. I was unable to eat this and at that stage we asked for our bill to leave. The waitress sensed we were annoyed and asked was my dessert ok, I told her the custard was cold and she asked had I wanted it heated?? We asked for our room bill to sign and left immediately. The following morning, we went to the restaurant hungry after our meal the night before and had a fry. My plate was taken as soon as I put my fork down from a waiter who hadnt even been serving us, he leaned in from behind me and just took it, he never asked was I finished. From where I come from it is manners not to clear a plate when not everyone has finished and certainly not without asking!! I was furious as I'd planned on getting more and now had no cutlery. Plus had to sit with no plate while my fiance finished his breakfast. The restaurant staff are a discredit to this hotel and this is the only place I have every left without tipping, but I just couldn't reward the bad service we received. When we checked out I'd planned on commenting on it to the receptionist, however for the first time ever, we weren't even asked how our stay had been. The best wurprise was an added extra of V.A.T onto our bill, so very false advertising to say it was 45euro and stay free!! I would advice the managers to have a serious re-think of their restaurant set-up and my advice for anyone planning on taking this offer up, don't!! Seriously disappointed!!!

Stayed in the Carlton Hotel, Kinsale, for a 2 night mid-week break...The hotel is situated about 3km outside the main town and is nicely secluded, but at the same time it's only 30mins drive into Cork City so you have the best of both worlds...It's a modern hotel and it's extremely clean and well kept. We only ate breakfast in the hotel which was average, but good enough.

We booked the hotel through the hotels website and stayed in a superior double which had a floor to ceiling window the width of the room overlooking the bay.

Positives:
Great Location
Sound Proofed Rooms
Air Con in the room
Extremely Clean and well maintained
View from the room over the bay

Negatives:
Breakfast was average. The buffet consisted of cereal's, croissants, brown bread and juice. Hot food was available to order and was a big greasy even if it was a fry. Sausages were also a little rubbery.
As atmosphere in the dining room was like a morgue which put us off having dinner in the hotel and the bar was the same. But at the same time we realise it's off season and mid-week so the hotel wasn't busy.
The bed and duvet were very uncomfortable leading to a not so great sleep. Glad I upgraded to the deluxe room for the 6" bed or I'd probably not have slept a wink.

All in all we had a great stay and it's easy to pick the negative points over the many positives.

I'd recommend this hotel to anyone.

My husband and I stayed here with our 22 month old daughter in January of 2012.
We purposely chose this hotel because of the pool. We wanted to give our daughter at least something to do on a trip that was mainly for us! The hotel itself is beautiful. The views are amazing. The restaurant was also very nice and accommodated our daughter wanting to walk around during dinner although they were out of pasta which made convincing her to eat difficult. The hotel had a crib all set up for us when we got there which was great. The room was mostly very nice except for 2 issues.
The fixtures on several of the drawers kept coming off and were small pieces. Having a small child this was worrisome but we just kept trying to put them back together.
The other issue was there were only 2 towels to the room yet we were 3 people. There were also not any face towels or hand towels. It seemed like there was a towel shortage or something as usually hotel rooms have ample towels. I know conservation is needed but no hand towels??
We did not raise this to the front desk as we were not there long enough but had we stayed a bit longer it would have been annoying.
As for location, yes it is a bit out of town but not far at all. Granted it was January so parking was easy for us to find but it was a quick drive in and out. I imagine summer months parking to be troublesome and might make the commute in difficult but didn't come into play on our trip.
Overall a lovely place to stay.

This is a fabulous hotel. I really relaxed at this hotel. The place is so beautiful with lovely views out onto the bay. The room was clean & nice. The food was fantastic, I mainly ate the salmon as I enjoyed it so much on my first night. I was amazed that the soup was different every night because normally it is the same one every evening, they had a tomato one evening and a lovely potato and cauliflower another. I only tried dessert one evening as I was so full from dinner each evening, mind you it was lovely on that occassion.
I tried out the leisure centre as well, the pool was lovely and I really liked relaxing in the jacuzzi. I also used the Spa. I had two treatments for €99, a facial & massage. Sharon looked after me so well. This was the ultimate treat for me. I spent half the day in the spa, between my treatments and the relaxation room and really enjoyed it.
I have to say I can't speak high enough of this hotel. I really am looking forward to when I can go back again.