A recent business meeting for my husband meant that just one night's accommodation outside of Dublin would be on the company's tab. Happily, the hotel in question promised to be quite a nice one. The Leixlip House Hotel lies just a few miles west of Dublin, in the town of Leixlip. This old Georgian establishment caters to well-heeled business travelers and boasts nineteen individually decorated rooms, many of them furnished with antiques.

On arrival, the hotel appeared quite posh. Our check-in was handled quickly and professionally. But when we were given a room on the second floor we were directed to the stairs with no offer of help for our bags. I mention the lack of elevator or porters only because this hotel is clearly presenting itself as a luxury hotel with a high degree of personal service. I don't mind carrying my own bags, and I'd packed very lightly for this trip. But I think the sort of clientele this hotel would attract would expect better service for the nightly rate at the Leixlip House.


Our room

Our first glimpse of our very spacious Superior double room left us suitably impressed. It looked quite swank, dominated by a few large pieces of antique or antique-looking wooden furniture. We had a four-poster bed with canopy and a large padded headboard. The posters were ornately carved as was the massive armoire with two mirrored closet doors separated by a chest of drawers. There were also two marble topped bedside stands with several drawers and table lamps sitting on them, two large upholstered armchairs with a coffee table between them, a nice writing desk with a mirror above it and a chaise lounge at the foot of the bed. There was also a well tended a live palm in corner, but oddly there were no luggage racks. Also, although we had specifically requested a non-smoking room, there was an ashtray on the coffee table. At least there was no detectable cigarette odor.

I thought the decorating scheme of our room tastefully subdued, with ochre and white colors predominating, but the sage green bedspread and chaise complimented the other colors too. Otherwise, the room was decorated with a few prints on the walls, a chandelier, Victorian moldings and wainscotting. In the bedroom we had two tall windows with heavy drapes facing out the front of the building. In-room amenities included an electric kettle and tea service, complimentary bottles of sparkling water, a trouser press, alarm clock-radio, phone, a television with a VCR and a stereo.


Bath

Our large bathroom was tiled throughout - both floor and walls. We had a long and wide tub with a showerhead, but no shower curtain. There was just a half length glass barrier, which kept most of the water in the tub when we showered. As it was a cold and blustery day and we'd been out hiking, I took a bath on arrival and was pleased to find plenty of hot water available. It was such a treat to be able to stretch out full length in a hot bath. Though we'd booked the room as a double, towels and a terrycloth robe for just one person were provided. More towels were brought up by the staff, but only after we'd made two requests.

We had one tall window in the bathroom with both a scrim and heavy drapes. An old stand for a washbasin stood before the window with a basket of cotton balls, cotton swabs, and facial tissues. On the lower shelf of the stand was a basket of potpourri. Other toiletries included shampoo and conditioner, hard milled hand soap, hand lotion, shower caps and a shoe shine kit. A shaving mirror and hairdryer were also provided. Small details like ceramic doorknobs and a little swinging plate to cover the keyhole on the inside of the bathroom brought a nice touch of personality to the room.


Breakfast

The morning meal was included with the price of our room. It was served in a pleasant and light-filled room on the ground floor. At first I thought the simple buffet was all that was available. If that had in fact been the case, I wouldn't have complained, for it included yogurt, fruit scones, several varieties of cereal, dried and preserved fruit, mineral water and fresh juices. I selected some mineral water and a scone and took my seat. After a moment a waitress came out to ask what I wanted for breakfast. Seeing me hesitate, she inquired whether I wanted a full Irish breakfast. I asked for just a pot of tea, one egg and the grilled tomatoes. I got the pot of tea and the tomatoes as well as two fried eggs. The tables were set with linens and nice silverware as well as salt and pepper cellars and sugar cubes. When I asked if any artificial sweetener was available, it was cheerfully brought out to me. All things considered, the breakfast was excellent and one of the things the Leixlip House gets top marks for.


Service

Leixlip House makes a point of touting themselves as a full-service establishment. They offer all the little extras such as turndown service with chocolates and complimentary overnight shoe shine. However, their staff seems to be made up primarily of teenagers and employees in their very early twenties. There's nothing wrong with youth, of course, but the professionalism as a whole left something to be desired. Again, there was nothing bad enough about the service to warrant complaints under normal circumstances. But when a hotel specifically promotes an image of excellent customer service, they ought to live up to the hype.


Amenities

Being situated near the internet and high tech companies in Leixlip, the Leixlip House makes much of having been the first hotel in Ireland to offer free wifi in each room. This was something we were looking forward to, but when we asked to borrow one of the hotel's wireless cards, we were told they were all loaned out already. There was some vague mention of the possibility of more cards being locked up in the manager's office, but the staff didn't seem keen to pursue this and never got back to us. We ended up using the phone line to connect via a local number for half an hour at a cost of €16. They did have electrical adapters available for both US and continental European electrical appliances.

The hotel has a restaurant on the premises. Normally closed on Sunday evenings, it was open due to the Mother's Day holiday in Ireland, but it was also fully booked for the same reason. We were able to sit in the comfy front lounge of the reception area though and order from the menu. We found the food to be acceptable, but not exceptional. My husband had the roast pork and felt it was somewhat dry and overcooked. I ordered a salad and an assortment of Irish farmhouse cheeses, one of which turned out to be Italian parmesan, and not a very good example of the cheese at that. Normally when one orders a cheese plate, the cheeses are identified on an accompanying sheet of paper. Not only were the cheeses on my plate not identified, but the server seemed genuinely surprised that I would want to know what I was eating. It took two trips to the back of the house to identify five of the six cheeses I was served. He was never quite able to remember or pronounce the name of the sixth cheese, and apparently didn't think to write anything down. Dinner for two ran to about €47.

There is a secure parking lot on the premises reserved for the hotel's patrons.


Final Thoughts

We were given an extremely reasonable nightly rate for our room which included breakfast. This rate was a highly preferential one granted to the company my husband works for on a contractual basis, and for that reason I cannot give an exact figure. Rack rate for a Superior double room runs to €200. I've given this hotel three stars based on the level of quality compared to the rack rate. If the rack rate matched the charge appearing on our bill, I would upgrade the rating to four stars at least.

If you're considering staying at the Leixlip House, you are almost certainly a business traveler having business to attend to with one of the high-tech companies in Leixlip. In that case I would recommend the establishment, as there are few other promising hotels in the area. Tourists visiting Dublin will not find it highly convenient to stay in Leixlip. Though the town is connected with central Dublin via DART, it is a 40-minute ride into the city and trains run only about once per hour. For these reasons, I would recommend it to business travelers, but not to tourists primarily interested in Dublin. Those looking for five-star accommodations with fawning service will probably have mixed feelings about the Leixlip House.

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