Great National Hotel Ballina

We booked an overnight stay in this hotel based on a relative's recommendation. It was just as expected, a good-sized room with a comfortable bed and a clean bathroom. The buffet breakfast was good. There was a nice selection of cereals, croissants, juices, toast, etc, and also a selection of cooked food. We had our evening meal in the restaurant and enjoyed it, service was efficient and friendly. Overall the overnight stay booked off the hotel website represented great value when some hotels are charging outrageous prices. The reception and foyer area is beautiful and creates a marvellous impression. If visiting Ballina again we would certainly book in again. Thank you.

My partner & I stayed here last weekend, booked a DELUXE DOUBLE room & paid almost €600 (that's with 15% discount off for booking direct) I do want to stress that most of the staff that we encountered where lovely. But it seriously needs said, that in no way is this hotel worthy of its 4 star rating. I requested a room with a walk in shower - it was a wet room, with no shower curtain or doors around the shower, so every time we got a shower, the bathroom literally flooded. We explained this to the lady at reception when we where asking for more towels & she just nodded her head, grunted & went back to what she was doing. The water in the bathroom smelled like sewage & was off colour, how is anyone supposed to make tea with that? We bought bottled water the whole time we where there. The bed was supposed to be a Deluxe double - it was 2 single beds pushed together - not 2 single bases with a king-size mattress, which we have had in a few other hotels.... literally 2 single beds - the large join in the middle made it extremely uncomfortable. The TV in the room was pre-historic.... I'm not asking for a 40" flat screen, but it's 2024. Plus it only had 2/3 channels. The fuse box in the room hummed/buzzed constantly. One lady at reception told us to take our card out during the night - we couldn't do that as we take an electric cooler box with us for my partners diabetic medication. Another member of staff told my partner "yeah, they all do that"! The breakfast was good, unfortunately dinner was not. My partner ordered the steak sandwich, which the menu says, comes with chunky chips - it arrived, half a soft sub roll with 5 peices of steak (overcooked) in it, with frozen chips. The cocktails where most definitely made with a pre mix. The noise at all times of the day shows that noise proofing is needed - on the 1st floor anyway. The one saving grace of this hotel is the beer garden... we had beautiful weather and it was lovely to be able to sit out. I accept that this review is quite harsh - reason being, we have stayed in a number of 4 star hotels, so are used to that type of accommodation. This hotel is definitely not up to others standards.