Brian O'Connell stays at the Ballsbridge Inn, in Dublin
OVER THE PAST FIVE years I have stayed in more of Dublin’s hotels and guest houses, and on more of its spare couches and sitting-room floors, than I care to remember.
Often the choice depends on why I’m visiting the city. If it’s to try to drum up work, then it usually doesn’t matter where I end up. The cheaper and more convenient the bed, the better.
But during the glory days of the Celtic Tiger there was a pretence to be kept up, and prospective employers often judged you by your accommodation arrangements.
So I found myself staying everywhere from Buswells Hotel (noisy but central) to the Jurys Inn at Christchurch (watch out for the parking add-ons), from the Radisson (superb) to Barry’s (not nearly as warm and inviting as the tea), from the Morgan (fine if a little flashy) to the Clarence (overpriced but luxurious) and the Tara Towers (bleak).
With a new year come new offers, and D4 Hotels has launched what must be the capital’s cheapest hotel rooms – in the once-pricey suburb
of Ballsbridge, where as youngsters on family days out we exchanged tickets for GAA matches in the foyer of the Berkeley Court or pulled in and ate sandwiches in the car park at Jurys.
Now Jurys Ballsbridge and the Berkeley Court have been subsumed into the one complex, and the newly titled Ballsbridge Inn is offering
100 rooms on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights for €20.10 for February. Other rooms start at €59, with the slightly more upmarket Ballsbridge Towers offering accommodation from €69.
It took time, but finally Dublin’s hotels are beginning to follow the Ryanair model, offering affordable no-frills places to stay right in the city centre. (Although if it was truly to follow the Ryanair model, D4 Hotels might put its accommodation somewhere near Mullingar.)
The accommodation at the Ballsbridge Inn is standard ex-Jurys three-star lodgings, with sparse but adequate furnishings and little in the way of modern decor or trimmings. But that’s all right. The rooms are clean, fairly roomy and quiet.
Two quibbles: firstly, the curtain detached from the rails at one point, allowing a shaft of light to flood the room early in the morning. Secondly, the toilet seat was loose and the shower was one of those where you needed a degree in engineering to get the temperature right.
On the plus side, booking a room for one person didn’t mean that you ended up in an expanded cupboard.
The rooms were set up for two people as standard. Some family rooms, which can easily sleep five, are included in the promotion.
The no-frills element in each room means getting rid of needless extras like writing pads, pens and minibars. There are limited tea- and coffee-making facilities (without biscuits), and the beds have fewer pillows.
Of course, the hotel hopes to make money through add-ons and extra charges.
So breakfast, which is served in the Dubliner Bar, costs €9.95 for a basic continental and €12.95 for a full Irish.
The continental breakfast is no great shakes, with small selections of fruit, pastries and bread all offered in a dark and depressing room. My advice would be to skip the formal offerings and take advantage of the on-site cafes for a good coffee and pastry. At the Deli D4 you’ll get a large breakfast roll for €4 or a small one for €2.45.
The lobby can be busy, especially at check-in times, and chill-out spaces are at a premium. I counted three staff manning the reception desks most of the times I passed, which helped keep queues to a minimum.
Internet access is free for one hour but charged at pretty hefty rates after that.
Essentially, what D4 Hotels has done is take something akin to a student-apartment-complex model and import it to a hotel setting.
And it works. It’s not the Ritz, granted, but for a little over €20 a night it’s a good deal better than many of the more expensive offerings around the city.
WhereBallsbridge Inn, Pembroke Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, 01-6684468, d4hotels.ie.
WhatBudget hotel.
Rooms185.
Best rates€20.10 for a room, excluding breakfast, on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays in February.
Restaurants and barsThe Dubliner Bar offers breakfast, sports and entertainment at night; D4 Stores (open from 7am-11pm), DeliD4 and CaféD4 offer eat-in or takeaway snacks and sandwiches; PizzaD4 is open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. It does a great pizza with fresh ingredients.
AccessWheelchair access to rooms and facilities on the ground floor and wheelchair-accessible rooms available at the Ballsbridge Inn and the adjoining Ballsbridge Towers.
AmenitiesWi-Fi, luggage room, cinema, Thai massage parlour, hair salon, parking (overnight rate of €10.50 for guests).
Child-friendlinessChildren welcome; cots available, subject to availability, at no extra charge.