I am amazed at the last couple of reviews. Stayed here in Sept for the 3rd time and once again everything was perfect.....The food, service, our room. Great place to stay if you want to treat yourself to a nice day shopping in Dublin followed by a lovely meal to end the evening. I agree that it is very expensive. Not the type of place you would stay for a week unless you are loaded.
But definately worth it for a nice weekend.

We stayed at The Merrion in July. Check in was painful as the person on the desk was more interested in doing something on her pc. We were eventually checked in and taken to our good sized room which overlooked the back end of a row of shops and3 skips!

We changed room to one with a view of the garden. Downside was that the new room was tiny.

We found the service was really poor. We waited at our table in the garden to be served drinks before dinner. We waited 20 minutes for assistance before I gave up, went inside and asked for some assistance. It was not the case they did not know we were there, they just did not care.

Dinner at the Patrick Guillbaud restaurant was torturous. The menu is stunning and so is the wine list. I have nothing but praise for the food. But again the service was abysmal. I am a vegetarian of which they were aware, because I had told them and they had provided me with a vegetarian menu. Firstly we were brought an appetiser, mine was beef! I explained I was vegetarian and did not eat meat or fish. They took it away and came back with a replacement of fish soup! My partner wanted to leave then but I convinced him to stay. What a mistake. As we soon learned, not one member of the serving staff spoke English as their first language. As the manager/co-owner told us at the end of the meal, that is why they did not understand the word vegetarian’. Being of Irish descent and having lived in Dublin as a child, I was amazed that in an English speaking country, the serving staff did not have a firm grasp of the language.

Anyway, £300 lighter we left having complained bitterly.

We stayed 2 days and the service was so poor we could bear it no longer. We could not wait to leave so we checked out early on our final day.

It is such a pity as the hotel is very lovely (even if it is bordered on one side of the garden by what looks like a factory) and we were very much looking forward to it. Do not stay here unless you want to pay a fortune to be treated very badly.

Booked package called Live Like A Duke, one of the best double rooms in Main house with Breakfast, non smoking.

On arrival were allocated a large smoking room which was looking a bit shabby. We complained as this was not what we had booked, they checked the booking and yes we are right, however they did not have a Non smoking room to give us, so we had to sleep there the first night. We decided to have afternoon tea and some cakes. We sat in the garden got the tea and no cakes, the waitress forgot about them! Not a good start.

Next day we were shown to another room which was very nice and Non smoking. The hotel was allright but I could not say it came up to our expectation of 5* and was certainly not worth the money. We have stayed in 5* hotels often so do know what they should be like.

this is the only place to stay when in dublin. i have stayed in quite a few of the big name hotelr in the city and this is by far the best. the service is wonderful and staff are very attentive and helpful. breakfast is to die for and when i misplaced an expensive coat they were extremely efficient at locating it for me and was in the room on my return. i have stayed here on numerous occasions when in dublin and cannot fault it ,it is up there with the best!