I have stayed in the Clarion in Cork on two occasions; and would give it a fair rating. The rooms are clean as is the hotel generally; however the furnishing is quite Ikean and souless, rendering it a rather boring establishment.

The hotel is located on Lott's Quay with the entrance a short stroll to the boardwalk over the river Lee. There are two places to eat in the hotel: Kudos in the main bar plys its trade as a thai-food eatery, and Sinergy the strangley monikered main restaurant behind the lobby which serves mainstream fare. The names are a little pretentious and unoriginal and the restaurant would no doubt benefit from the more traditional name 'The Clarion Grill'.

The check-in procedure is laborious and over complicated executed by officious staff members who eye the guests with a provincial suspicion more at home in a one horse town bed and breakfast.

The Clarion is really a supersized 3* hotel, fine for one night, but not a place you'd want to spend a few days in; much like Cork City which is a rather lifeless pit-stop on the way to somewhere more interesting.

We stayed at the Clarion for a convention and it was a wonderful venue for that - although the rooms are great the lighting is atrocious if you stay in a room facing the atrium. We were on the 2nd floor and the lights in the room were low level. When we opened the curtains there was little or no daylight. It made me feel like I was in a cell. My other issue was that to get any extra light the curtains needed to be opened but the room was then overlooked from the other side of the atrium - not good if you have just been in the shower and you can wave to a fellow visitor. One of my friends was "lucky" enough to have a room on the outside of the hotel - unfortunately their window was overlooked by an allnight call centre - fully lit all night. I realise nothing can be done about that but they certainly could ensure better lighting in the lower level rooms and in the atrium bar area itself (which at night was incredibly dark).

Actually the Clariion Hotel is a new and clean hotel.

However while staying there a couple of days the first impression changed.

For me on a business trip it is important to have internet access. In my case I had for three days virtually no access because the connection was constantly failing.

I also don't like to be called out of the bed at Sunday morning 5AM because somebody mixed up the room numbers. By the way I later on at the reception met the guest, which did not get called.

The next day when I went back to the room somebody had obviously spent so much room spray that I got headaches from the smell and only after insisting, I could get an other room.

If you need a taxi in the morning and ask the concierge to book one for the next morning to a certain time, you better add another 10 minutes because you never know if it is really there.

The only thing that could really convince me was the service in the restaurant - at the first day I went there. You can consider it my fault that on the second day while being 4 minutes to late, I was kicked out and perhaps I am wrong if I expected to get some goodwill for 4 minutes after spending about 70 Euros in the restaurant the day before.

In my impression the management, for cost saving reasons, is relying in very young untrained employees.

Stayed two nights recently on a mix of business and pleasure. Excellently located for city, exceptionally clean with staff who were very professional and friendly - and contrary to another review we found the `foreign' staff to be particularly friendly and professional. Would not hesitate to returnfor another short stay