I stayed here for 3 days recently as I was attending a wedding in nearby Portmarnock. My worst Hilton experience...ever and I could not possibly recommend this hotel to anyone else.

First of all, we were given poor directions to the shuttle from the airport and missed the shuttle, leaving my pregnant wife and I standing in the rain, until we caught a cab; probably sounded right to the receptionist, but not if you've never been there before. This was repeated a few days later when we were given the wrong street (as marked & written on a map by the receptionist) for a bus back from town.

The hotel is about 15 minutes drive from the airport and is used by various airline crews as is common at other Hiltons, other than that it seems almost exclusively a stop off for locals on the way to the airport for early flights. It is certainly far too far from Dublin city to be convenient for the town. Also if I had known how bad it was going to be, I would have stayed in Malahide or Portmarnock for the wedding or if we go back to visit relatives there.

On arrival, I wasn't welcomed at all, but did note that my room card did say I had been upgraded - nice, considering that I got exactly the room and breakfast I booked and paid for. What I didn't get was the 1000 HH points I had as my Gold VIP preference - which I'll now try and get.

OK, that's minor. The room was average, although a 'suite' it was more of a functional, beige business room than anything else but otherwise clean. I could envisage meetings being held here with clients, rather than a place to relax. Unfortunately there was a window leak which left dirty water all over the window sill and on the carpet when it rained. I found this out by stepping in it in my socks when I went to close the curtains....yuk.

However, the very worse thing is the noise. I don't think we slept properly in 3 days and unfortunately were unable to move due to our own restrictions. If I hadn't paid in advance I would have checked out after the first night. This hotel is on the junction of two main highways and the noise is exceptional all day and all night. Being on a junction, you of course get not just the driving by noise, but all the gear changing and 'boy-racer' squealing tyre starts too. The rooms face right on to this and there was not adequately soundproofed from it. You may fare better with odd numbered rooms which are on the other side of the corridor. If that wasn't bad enough, then the smoking area and cab pick up point is also on the rooms side outside - which means that during private functions you get all the singing, shouting, swearing, laughing etc into the early/mid hours of the morning. I had to phone reception twice at 2am-ish.

I did mention all this very politely to the receptionist on leaving who shrugged and said how sorry she was and nothing else. Some kind of gesture would have been nice. I stay at many many Hiltons and I've never known one to be this unconcerned.

In summary, I would only suggest this hotel is used by those living in Southern Ireland who need to catch an early flight, in which case I'd still have a look for somewhere else. It's not a place to stay, IMHO, if you are visiting Dublin (30-40 mins away by road at least) or friends in the area.