Headfort Arms Hotel (Kells, Ireland)

You would have to look very hard indeed to find anything but compliments regarding the food at the Headfort Arms. Their star restaurant, Vanilla Pod, comes in for especially high praise, but guest also regularly praise the Irish breakfast offered, as well as the food in the pub and café.

Hardly a single guest had anything bad to say about the hotel's staff. They were described as offering a warm and friendly welcome, and while problems couldn't always be resolved completely, guests felt that they did their absolute best.

Even guests who had some issues seem to concede that the hotel's staff, from the General Manager down, paid the kind of attention to detail that is the hallmark of a luxury hotel. The rare problem was usually caused by other guests, rather than the result of an oversight by staff members.

Quite a few guests who stayed in the colder months mention that their rooms were much too warm. There didn't appear to be any reasonable way for them to adjust the room's temperature, so they experienced some discomfort, especially when trying to get to sleep.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem the rooms are soundproof enough to block out noise from big events being held at the hotel. It is an extremely popular wedding location, so most weekends, especially in summer, there are events held that run till late, with the accompanying disturbance.

Somewhat tied in with noise issues, a few guests point out that the hotel has rooms overlooking an area that both guests  and staff use for their smoke break. Aside from noise issues, they felt this was a bit of a bleak outlook.