Maple Hotel

Note: all my recent vacation in Ireland Unilocal reviews will have the same 1^st paragraph preamble, for just the review itself skip to the 2^nd paragraph.
On a whirlwind 2 week vacation to Ireland, the girlfriend & I tried to see & experience absolutely as much of this incredible land as we could. We did not accomplish every last activity we wished we could have on our rather ambitious itinerary. Nonetheless, we did discover a land of numerous stunning & magical wonders. We did see a land of unending natural beauty. We did learn of a land with a monumentally long history of trials, tragedies & triumphs. We did get to meet many kind, humorous, warm & generous people. Our vacation to Ireland was just 2 weeks, but that was time enough to know this is a land easy to love & a land to be sorely missed.
Fresh off the plane, the girlfriend & I took the Airlink all the way to the Central Bus Station which is a conveniently short walk to the Maple Hotel. Being the 1^st of 5 hotels in our Ireland trip, I really wanted to love this place but knew that any sort of grand hotel anywhere remotely near Temple Bar for cheap wasn’t completely realistic. It was with lowered expectations that we checked into our room. The Maple Hotel met some of those very much lowered expectations, fell short in some ways & exceeded expectations in one aspect.
Fortunately, the girlfriend & I both packed light (just 1 carry-​on each) as there is no elevator in the Maple Hotel. Getting to any room means climbing stairs & hauling your stuff up those stairs. The room was seriously tiny. The room had a full size bed & barely enough space around it for 1 person to walk. The room had its own bathroom, but this was tiny too. As small as all of it was, this was fine with us & manageable. What wasn’t so fine was the smell. The room smelled like the walls were impregnated with old cigarette smoke & then freshly painted over. It was nice that the room looked like it had a fresh coat of paint, but the smell meant keeping the window open to air it out. Otherwise, the room was fairly clean. The girlfriend did, however, get a couple series of bug bites while sleeping here which made me think bedbugs were a possibility.
A few other notes concerning the room itself: the toilet was temperamental & would not completely flush reliably, no washcloth was provided (apparently not uncommon, only 1 of the 5 hotels on this trip had washcloths) & the phone in the room does not call out at all.
Regarding some hotel services: there is a payphone in the lobby but it devours money without connecting calls, there is no private car park (though their website seems to imply there is), there is free wifi but its range is mostly limited to the lobby area, there’s a small pub in the hotel behind the front desk & a breakfast (served 8−10am downstairs below the front desk) is included with the room every morning.
The included breakfast was easily the highlight. One of the choices available was the «Irish breakfast» (1 egg, 2 sausage, 2 rashers, pudding*, beans, toast, coffee, OJ). I had this every morning of our stay & it was a great way to start the day.
The 3 best things the Maple Hotel has going for it are: its location not far from Temple Bar, a decent breakfast included with the room fare & the relatively cheap room rate. Everything else about these accomodations leaves a little or a lot to be desired. With the advantage of hindsight (& having stayed at our last of 5 hotels in Ireland, also in Dublin near Temple Bar), I now know that there are better, cheaper & more centrally located accomodations to be had. On any future visit to Dublin, I will definitely try to stay at our 5^th hotel, which was also in Dublin & where we stayed our last night in Ireland before heading home. While I will always remember my 1^st days in Ireland fondly, the fact is that there are better hotels for the money in Dublin around Temple Bar.
*there’s a white & a black pudding served throughout Ireland, this one was closer to the white, but more like a grilled liverwurst

Nothing spectacular is a good way to describe this place.
Great city centre location, but very difficult to get a good night’s sleep.
Very reasonable prices though and the closeness to some major tourist spots may be worth it

I’m always loathe to write hotel reviews as people have such different expectations of what they want for their money and what matters to them in a hotel that it is hard to recommend somewhere. For our recent needs on a trip to Dublin — this place was perfect. Don’t get me wrong you wouldn’t go there for a romantic tryst, but for a crash pad to sleep in and have breakfast while catching the sights of this great City — the Maple Hotel fulfilled all our needs.
The Maple Hotel Dublin is a budget hotel situated on the Northside of the city on Lower Gardiner Street. This is about 5 minutes from O’Connell Street and about 10 minutes walk across the river to Grafton Street and Temple Bar. The Hotel is ideally situated for exploring the City and is great if you are looking to spend more time sightseeing than relaxing in your room.
We booked the hotel through
(with Quidco cashback of course) and the total was £81.00 for two nights. We got a a twin room with our own bathroom and breakfast on two mornings.
On approaching the hotel you will see a very smart entrance with steps up to the door and a black plaque bearing the name ‘Maple Hotel’. At all times you have to ring the bell for entry but as the desk is manned 24 hrs a day this is not a problem.
Our checkin was easy with the staff very friendly –luckily for us our room was ready early as we had been travelling all night and were very tired. Our room was on the second floor — the hotel is a bit like a large house with carpeted stairwells.
The room was a decent size for two people with slightly old fashioned décor but was immaculately clean and warm. The bathroom was more like a shower room — and was stuck in the 1970’s with a pink suite, but again immaculately clean and tidy. The room looked out onto Lower Gardiner Street and so there was traffic noise which bothered my flatmate but I can honestly say made no difference to me.
Breakfast was cereals. toast or full irish — or a combination of the three. For veggies this meant eggs and beans with toast but for £40 a night betwen two I couldn’t complain.
All in all the perfect hotel for our needs and the money we spent. Well recommended.

This B & B is a good place to stay if you don’t plan of getting a good night’s sleep. The location of this Bed and Breakfast is great because it is only 5 minutes walk from Temple Bar and is directly in the heart of the Dublin city center. However, it is noisy and is very touristy. The staff weren’t particularly helpful when I asked them about local tours but to be fair because of the location being close to the tourist information office I guess local knowledge may not né considered to be an important job requirement. The food was average so overall the price I paid reflected my experience staying here.