2RETIREDTRAVELERS

Has Choice sold their Dublin Airport hotel? Tried to search it for a cheap points stay at the end of our upcoming Ireland trip. Seems to be gone.

scruffy

Now Maldron Hotel Dublin Airport:

http://www.independent.ie/regionals/...-30018958.html

sdsearch

The answer to another question is yes, but the answer to your stated question is likely no.

In other words, I bet Choice never owned their Dublin Airport hotel. It was simply a hotel which was affiliiated with Choice before, and now is no longer affiliated(aka "deflagged").

You can't sell what you don't own!

Choice doesn't own most of its hotels (I don't know whether it owns any at all or not).

... The correct quesiton would be: "Did the Dublin Airport Hotel leave the Choice program?" (And to that question, the answer is indeed yes.)

lwildernorva

But, if you're looking for a cheap Choice stay, the Clarion Dublin IFSC, which is no more than a short ride to the airport, and which is located not far from the center of Dublin, still is available for 8K points. I've now stayed there three times, and I think this is one of Choice's great redemption values. If you get a balcony room overlooking the River Liffey, I dare say that you've gotten a better room, forget the points required, than at any SPG, Hilton, or IHG property in Dublin.

Nevertheless, yes, it appears as if the airport hotel has dropped off the Choice portfolio, and that the Ascend property, which goes for 25k points, may have taken its place.

2RETIREDTRAVELERS

Thanks for the info and suggestions.

sdsearch

What kind of short ride?

In my mind, Paddington area hotels in London are better airport hotels than the actual LHR airport area hotels. But that's because Heathrow Connect/Heathrow Express is a train on dedicated tracks (no street crossings, etc), and it doesn't necessarily take any more time than the shuttles to/from the various LHR area hotels.

Car/taxi/bus rides, though, are subject to traffic or worse. An example of worse: In Buenos Aires, civil protests are known to sometimes completely block traffic on the main road from the city to the international EZE airport; the analogy would be if marches in Washington DC were replaced by sit-ins across all lanes of the Dulles Access Highway!

lwildernorva

Eight miles, point to point. And the Airlink bus, which stops a block or two from the Clarion IFSC and runs on a very regular basis, uses the Dublin Tunnel, which because of its high toll for many vehicles, tends to be a lightly traveled route to the airport and because vehicles which carry 25 passengers or more (such as the Airlink bus) are not subject to the toll and the location of the Clarion at one of the nearest stops to the airport, makes the 6 euro one-way ticket and 10 euro RT ticket an amazing bargain as the toll for a private vehicle, at its lowest, is 3 euro and during rush hour, can be as high as 12 euro. Even with the stops within the airport and the general looping around that occurs with almost any airport shuttle, you should make it from the airport to the Clarion in roughly 20 minutes at almost any time of the day. Compare that with the Dublin Airport Hilton, which is probably 10 minutes from the airport property. In a car and admittedly extremely early in the morning, I've done the trip from the Clarion IFSC to the Dublin Airport in less than 10 minutes.

I agree that you subject yourself to the vagaries of traffic when you leave an airport property, but I reiterate that the Clarion IFSC, especially if you get a room with a balcony along the Liffey, is one of the best Choice redemptions anywhere. Its redemption rate at 8K makes it one of the best value redemptions of any program I know. I cannot figure out a logical reason to spend 16K harder-to-earn SPG points per night for a room at the Westin or 50K HHonors points at the Morrison Doubletree or Conrad Dublin or even 30K at the Hilton Dublin. Throw in that the Clarion IFSC's location, slightly off the center of Dublin, tends to work in its favor when you factor in the late night party scene that Dublin can be, with its accompanying noise, and I think it's a hotel I would consider even if I weren't getting a bargain price on CP points.

gv111

Seems like "Clarion Dublin IFSC" has also left the Choice system as I couldn't find it on Choice list of Ireland hotels - http://www.choicehotels.com/en/trave...blin-IE-hotels.

Anybody has any idea? Thanks so much.

gv111

Called the property and they confirmed that it is leaving Choice. Oh well ...

lwildernorva

Uh, oh. I couldn't find it on the Choice Hotels website either. The Dublin IFSC website was still active at the time I wrote this post, http://clarionhotelifsc.com/, but if you search for availability there, you're taken to the Irish Choice website, http://www.choicehotels.ie/, and you only get messages stating "no availability." I suspect the website will be taken down soon because several other Google hits for the IFSC just take you to "page not found" pages on the Clarion website. I'd note this is a change from a week ago when I had an opportunity to search for dates there around Thanksgiving, and the Clarion was still an option.

For all the reasons I noted earlier in this thread, this is a shame. The Liffey Valley property, which remains as the only 8K Dublin redemption, is really too far outside the center of the city to be a viable property. Of course, the Ascend is available at 25K, which is probably a fair redemption, but simply brings it into line with redemptions available through SPG, Hilton, etc.

I have some great memories from several stays there. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. . .

gv111

It has become a Spencer hotel - link.

scruffy

I once stayed at the Clarion Liffey Valley on the night before a flight. I took the Airport Hopper http://www.airporthopper.ie/ which uses the M50 ring road and I was at the airport in about 15 minutes. I was doing the whole trip with Choice points and the Clarion IFSC was unavailable that night.

2RETIREDTRAVELERS

Thanks for that!^