The Beacon Hotel

The absolute polar opposite to the Castle Hotel, the first hotel I stayed at in Dublin, has to be the Beacon, which is as swanky and hip as the Castle is stodgy and old. When I walked into the lobby of the Beacon, I thought I was entering a nightclub with all the hipsters lounging with their cocktails and playing billiards on a white Baroque pool table (see photo). The Euro-funk music was loud and thumping ad nauseum, and it made me wonder what I was thinking when I booked a room here for three nights. However, when I got to the room, it was lovely, spacious, quiet and oh-so-modern with a huge king-size bed on an elevated platform with its own mood lighting, an all-white chaise lounge, and a big-screen TV.

The bathroom was downright palatial with an Australian flathead rain shower head and heated floor tiles. The entire room was very much in the spirit of the W Hotels back in the states. It was such a joy to stay amid such creature comforts that I was in no hurry to leave it to venture off to the city. Now the obvious downside for any tourist is that the hotel is nowhere near the heart of the city. It's out in a southern suburb called Sandyford, and so you have to take the Green Line of Dublin's Luas light tram system to get to the city center. The staff will insist it takes about eight minutes to walk from the hotel to the Kilmacud station. I'm here to tell you that's a lie. It takes a full twenty minutes on the side of a stark highway to walk to and from the station.

Once you catch a train for € 4.50 round trip ticket, it's about ten stops to St Stephen's Green, which takes about a half-hour. So all told, it will take you an hour to get to the city. Luckily the Luas is comfortable, modern and not too crowded, not even at rush hour. So what made me stay at the Beacon? Well, Dublin was pretty well reserved when I went earlier this month, and planning a trip there only two weeks in advance yields few affordable options as I was rummaging through TripAdvisor. For three nights, I ended up paying a lump sum of € 455, which equals close to $200 per night. Not a cheap rate but probably accurate for the amenities the Beacon provides, and that was my main draw since it was purely a vacation for me.

I even had a continental breakfast delivered to my room, so I was acting quite bourgeois there (see photo). The staff was a mixed bag. The young woman who helped me when I arrived was charming and proactive. The young bespectacled man who manned the desk afterward was on the terse side and never smiled. I never did explore the Sandyford area, which includes the big Dundrum Shopping Center nearby, probably because it felt too suburban for me to enjoy. I did give the hotel restaurant, My Thai, a try, and the less said, the better. You can read that review under My Thai. I would consider returning to the Beacon if I ended up renting a car and used Sandyford as a departure point for a road trip to the rest of Ireland. Now that would be lovely.

This hotel is across a courtyard from Beacon Hospital which is why I stayed there.

Hotel was comfortable with good, friendly service and reasonable rates. The room was clean, housekeeping does a nice job. The breakfast is very good and if you don't like what's on the buffet, they'll make whatever you want. I especially like the honeycomb honey they provide. Wait staff are friendly and attentive.

The elevators currently don't work so we have to walk up to our rooms, but hopefully that is temporary.

Hotel manager is a very nice guy and helpful. As is the front desk staff.

It's a good hotel in its own right but if you have to be close to Beacon hospital, it's incredibly convenient and highly recommended.

This is the hotel where I stay every time I am in Ireland (which is quite often). I like the location, very close to the M50, the staff is always very nice and the food is good too. I will continue coming here!

Nice wacky hotel with strange touches like a bed with a hole and a table in it, plus a chandelier stood on the floor both in reception.
Rooms are a good size with an excellent shower over the bath and free WiFi.
Breakfast was good, with an excellent fresh fruit selection.
Some of the public rooms and corridors are very dark, but as long as your eyesight is good a nice place to stay.

I must have stayed the most perfect week of summer because my room was hot the whole time I was there. I kept the windows open when I could but due to people smoking and hanging out directly under my room that was not a great option either. Wifi connection was ok but not great. The bed itself was very nice, I loved the bathroom, especially the showerhead. Ate one time at the restaurant downstairs and it was very good. Had breakfast daily and it was excellent. Our checkin on sunday after flying overnight was extremely delayed. Had I I known that it was going to be almost 1:30 before I could check in I would have paid for an extra night. Oh well.

Stayed here with my best friend on their Ultimate Ladies Night In package! Was fab! Room not ready when we arrived but wasn't bothered, nice reception area to wait in and we were heading to the Brown Cow Salon first as part of the package anyway. Apart from taxi driver not having a clue where he was going we got pampered with plenty of refills of bucks fizz! The package also included hat box of treats, unlimited movies, ice-cream and VIP pass for Dundrum Shopping centre.
We ate in the hotel restaurant that night and had one little hiccup which the manager & staff more than made up for. Dinner was delicious, a bit of a limited menu if u don't like Asian food but bar food also available in bar. Breakfast was also served in the restaurant and was lovely, usual buffet but included smoothies as well as juice and hot chocolate along with tea & coffee! Then cooked options also. Headed to Dundrum then had lunch in hotel bar before our late check out!
Have to say we had a really nice stay, hotel decor was really different, staff couldn't have been nicer and food was great! Only draw back is the actual location if u wanted nice surroundings as it is in an industrial estate but that didn't affect us at all, oh car park very easy to miss! It's just to the right of the hotel same one as for the hospital ;0)

oooohhhhh luxurious! okay, i havent stayed in here myself ( i live the down the road and cannot justify it) but my boyfriends parents have and it really is so nice.

I'll get my one bad point out of the way first, this hotel is in the middle of an industrial estate, not an ideal location for tourists at all, they wont be getting a good view of dublin from here!

now thats out of the way ill get on with describing the rest of the place. when you walk in the door you will find a big chandelier just lying on the floor and over to the right is a big massive four poster bed with a hole in the middle, i think the idea is sitting in the middle of the bed with your feet in the hole,very comfortable! this is all in the reception/ bar area at the front of the hotel. there are other quirky little things that make you go ooohhh and ahhhh as you walk around so its a great place to take someone for a drink or for lunch when you are trying to impress or entertain( i have been may times!).

at the back of the hotel is a thai restaurant which does really really tasty thai food, it really is just scrumptious! surrounding you are huge prints of grass on the wall and there is a modern thai feel to it all.

outside is a great smoking or outdoor drinking area which seems equally as quirky as the rest of the hotel

the bedrooms are not conventionally shaped with the wardrobes placed in behind a curved wall behind the bed, takes awhile to find! and the rest of the room really just has to be seen, just for its originality!

this is a great hotel really and you should look out for special offers that they frequently do!

Let me first start off by saying this hotel didn't seem to be near any attractions, even the taxi driver that brought us here said there was nothing to do near the hotel and it was in a strange place, though it's attached to a "very posh hospital" ...so I guess it's got that going for it...

And the LUAS tram system has a stop approximately 15 minutes walking distance through business/industrial park type areas, and once you're at the station, the tram only takes about 15 minutes to get into Dublin city center.

The hotel itself was clean and the staff was friendly, the room was nice with a gorgeous bathroom, modern, chic interior with a nice bed and comfortable pillows.

As I'm writing this at roughly 02:00 the neighbors in the room next to me (what sound like 3-4 men and one woman) have been playing a loud mix of dubstep/EDM and R&B music while having loud conversation and O-B-N-O-X-I-O-U-S-L-Y loud sex on and off for a little more than 2.5 hours.

I called the front desk and asked if they could do something about the noise and the first time there was no change. After the first SCREEEEEAMING sex session I knocked on the wall, no change. I again called the front desk and asked for help with the noise, this time the music stopped and the conversation died down, but this chick is back to loudly getting a train run on her.

So overall two stars, beautiful hotel, nice and attempting to be helpful staff but shitty location and paper thin walls...

Hopefully they wrap it up soon so I can sleep

OK, it's a funny fish-- half apartments, half hotel in the one place. I have only had lunch in the restaurant there and the food was good but the service left a little to be desired. The lounge area is nice, a little different and at times you feel like you are drinking in the foyer of a hotel/apartment block, which effectively you are but if you move a little way away from the door, it is quite comfortable and relaxed. If you are visiting Dublin and are not on business in the Sandyford / Leopardstown area, I would see little reason to stay here, as it's quite far from town. On the plus side it is pretty near the IMI and the LUAS, for connections to town/Cherrywood.

I stayed at The Beacon for a week. The rooms are great, I always book a king. There's a LCD / Plasma TV on the wall and the bed and interior is white. The bathrooms the best ever - a designer bath & seperate shower - with White Company designer toiletries not bad huh. The downside to this hotel is the menu it is boring & the food is of a very poor standard . The staff at The Beacon are also very young & inexperienced & could do with additional training. Although the restaurant food is poor the breakfast is great. Book this hotel if you're into contemporary boutique style properties:)