The Hostelz.com Review
Abbey Court is in an unbeatable location on the River Liffey and almost on the corner with O'Connell Street, the main road in Dublin. Temple Bar with its bars, restaurants and nightlife is a short walk across the river. Its also about 5 minutes walk from the airport bus stop on O'Connell Street. There are a variety of expensive express buses to the airport (€5 on the 747 and 748 buses, €6 for the aircoach) but you can also use the slower 16A bus (€1.60) which can be delayed because of Dublin's heavily congested suburban roads.
It is a little pricey but the extra money you pay for the dorm means savings on bus or DART fares to other parts of the city. This also means that on busy rugby weekends or during summer when other hostels are full, you may be lucky here. Breakfast at the nearby cafe NYstyle is included and involved a buffet of ceral, toast, juice and tea or coffee.
The dorms are an average size with bunkbeds. Each one has an ensuite shower/toilet room - one shower is not enough for twelve people in the mornings but there are others in the hallway nearby. It is advertised that the dorms include "lockers in all rooms." This is slightly deceptive since it involves a metal cage underneath the bed and is designed to be locked to the bed. Nevertheless security cards ensure a relatively high level of security (at least from people not staying in the dorm).
There are large communal spaces downstairs with TVs and internet access, along with kitchen facilities. If you're not a smoker the 24 hours smoking may get a little much at times.
It is a little pricey but the extra money you pay for the dorm means savings on bus or DART fares to other parts of the city. This also means that on busy rugby weekends or during summer when other hostels are full, you may be lucky here. Breakfast at the nearby cafe NYstyle is included and involved a buffet of ceral, toast, juice and tea or coffee.
The dorms are an average size with bunkbeds. Each one has an ensuite shower/toilet room - one shower is not enough for twelve people in the mornings but there are others in the hallway nearby. It is advertised that the dorms include "lockers in all rooms." This is slightly deceptive since it involves a metal cage underneath the bed and is designed to be locked to the bed. Nevertheless security cards ensure a relatively high level of security (at least from people not staying in the dorm).
There are large communal spaces downstairs with TVs and internet access, along with kitchen facilities. If you're not a smoker the 24 hours smoking may get a little much at times.
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
May 2004
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Can't recommend the twelve-bed room The Abbey Court was our first stop in Dublin and by far the worst hostel we came across on our trip. Unfortunately we booked our beds in advance and had to stay three nights! The bathroom was extremely dirty and so were the kitchen facilities! The breakfast was poor. The only good thing was the location! There are better hostels in Dublin! — Carolin , Germany (2009-08-13) The best thing about this hostel is the situation, simply the best. Close to everything but quiet at the same time. The rest -- our room was so dirty. Breakfast in a pizzeria outside the hostel. Placing a machine instead of front desk staff would make the same work. Briefly, the situation deserves the booking, forget about the rest. — Unai , Spain (2007-04-25) I stayed at Abbey Court with my girlfriend back in mid December of 2006. The hostel was decently clean in the rooms and bathrooms. the kitchen was nasty, but I didn't really care since I didn't use it. The social room also reeks because its right next to the social smoking room. The location of Abbey Court is perfect. Just take a Dublin bus from the airport and it drops you off within about two minutes walk from it. The staff weren't very happy. They were slightly helpful, and just seemed unaffected by our visit. Seemed like they were tired of people staying at their hostel? Also there were no lockers. I wouldn't take any valuables because you just lock them out in a shed with everyone else's stuff. Anyone can steal anything, and there are no locks on the wire baskets under the beds. What sucked the most is the 3 EURO towel rentals -- who the heck takes their own towel? My advice is to get a six-bed suite -- it's slightly more expensive, but we had the room to ourselves the whole week! I would stay here again, just because of the location. — Bryan (2007-01-01) The worst hostel I visited in europe. There are no lockers, just wire baskets you chain under your bed, which I think are break-in-able. The staff don't monitor the left luggage room so anyone can take the key and wander it for hours. Do not stay here if you have valuables. The front desk staff are however very nice.
The hostel is a mixture of backpackers (naive like me!) polish migrant workers and homeless people. The tramp in the bunk on top of me had a wank in the night... needless to say not very nice!
The kitchen is filthy and majorly short of utensils.
The one thing I really enjoyed was dinner with a paranoid schizoprenic woman who thought the bank was trying to kill her. Apparently the bank then gave her mum internal organ failure and broke her neck after taking her house. She used to be a doctor, then an airhostess and now shes an accountant!! She really lifted my spirits on a rainy weekend, but I think she is also potentially dangerous - she lives there long-term so watch it!!
However..... The location of the hostel is perfect! — Chris (from London) (2006-11-22) We stayed three nights in August 2006 in a double bedroom with bathroom, for which we were paid (robbed) 88 euros a night. In hindsight we wouldnt have paid one euro a night to stay there. On the first mid-week visit, we were woken up in the middle of the night -- and kept awake -- by the music from the pizzeria below, who are responsible for supplying the breakfast the following morning. Needless to say, after a crap sleep, we didnt make it for breakfast (perhaps thats their plan?), and werent reassured by the night porters statement that it was the noise from the pizzeria cleaning up at 3 a.m. -- constant problem.
Unfortunately we had already booked and paid for the following weekend, and an attempt to cancel proved impossible as we couldnt obtain a refund, leaving us trapped into the second visit. All we could hope for was the second visit would be better. How wrong could we be?
When we arrived, the ensuite shower was full of hair including pubic hair, with scum on the shower box and walls, and our attempts to rinse the shower out (as directed by the staff as there was no one available to clean it) failed when we discovered the drain was completely blocked. It took numerous requests to the reception desk and almost twenty-four hours before someone got around to cleaning it, leaving us unable to clean ourselves in the meantime. No one would visit the room to see the shower as the staff claimed they were too busy on reception even though there were two receptionists but no other guests standing there (nor did any enter in the five minutes my partner and I spent trying to get someone to come upstairs with us!). Unsurprisingly attempts to get compensation -- or even an apology -- from the manager failed as he denied all knowledge of any problem, despite information to the contrary from the staff. We had expected the receptionists refusal to visit the room previously as being plain lazy (as it was on the fifth floor with no lift), but having dealt with the manager, it appears it was more likely a ploy to allow him to claim amnesia, despite being sent the photos (four times!) showing clearly the pubic hair, head hair, scum, and God knows what blocking the drain. Our expectations of a budget hotel and hostel are pretty basic -- a decent nights sleep and clean facilities. I shudder to think if thats the Abbeys idea of a clean bathroom, then what else can be found in the rest of the place? I can honestly say this is the worst place I have ever stayed, in all my years of traveling. I have spent a number of years involved in the tourism industry, and indeed members of my family operate hotels and luxury B&B's, and no one I have showed the photos to believe the standards Abbey Court aspire to. If you have any sense of personal hygiene, I recommend anywhere but here. — Ripped off traveller (2006-09-21) This place was phenomenal! Truly one of the best hostels I have ever stayed in. Perfect location -- in the center of city and on the river. Staff friendly and helpful, fantastic free breakfast in restaurant next door. The rooms were adorable, clean, quiet (and colorful and decorated). Very social -- the common rooms are enormous, there is one for smoking and one that is non smoking. And there are always people hanging out on the couches, tables, etc. Kitchen too, chill people. The only downside is that you have to pay for internet, but we just went to one of the many internet cafes all over the city. There is one across the river from Abbey Hostel called Chill Out Cafe -- fabulous and cheap. Anyhow, this hostel was everything you could ask for -- cheap, clean, centrally located, fun. I would stay there again in a heartbeat. Abbey rocks. — Victoria (2006-04-23) Cant complain about Abbey Court at all. The place was really clean, the staff were really helpfull and friendly and it was extremely good value for money. You couldn't ask to be in a better location either. Will certainly stay there again if I go back to Dublin. — Laura (2006-02-15) I had a lovely stay here altogether. The place was clean and rather quiet. The staff were quite great about directing a traveler where to go about in Dublin. It's in a perfect location. It's about a three-minute walk across the river to the Temple Bar area, but you don't have to sleep surrounded by the noise. I would definitely stay here again. — Anonymous (2004-11-24)