Just back from a 2 night stay in the Heritage Hotel in Portlaoise and had a fantasitc time. Hotel is lovely and the staff are very helpful and friendly. Requested an upgrade when making the booking as it was a suprise birthday weekend and was allocated a suite which was a great suprise for my fiance.
Leisure centre and spa are really nice. Good choice of restaurants in the area. Breakfast quite nice. Overall would definitely go back!

Stayed at this hotel for 2 nights hotel itself is beautiful clean and very central . Had food on the first night in mollys bar staff were very helpful and friendly couldnt do enough for us we were a party of 10 adults and 6 chilren food was lovely and very reasonably. Our secound night meal was included in our package & was in the Fitzmaurice restaurant found the set menu to be a bit limited but food was lovely. I would also recommend the Ealu Spa attached to this hotel booked the rejunevation package before we went (this is neccesary) never felt as good staff and treatment brill. the only downside to this hotel was the heating in the swimming pool and changing rooms we found this to be a bit on the chilly side but this wound not stop all of us going back

Stayed with my wife and four childern for one weekend night. First impressions of the hotel is the weird facade. This is built in such a style, with columns etc. that there should be an avenue leading to it. Instead it is plonked in among town buildings,up a laneway with no space to spare. as far as town planning is concerned this building seems a bit of a monstrosity.

We were checked in quickly and got our rooms which were ok but the cleaning staff are either untrained or did it in a hurry as it was not up to four star standard.

Knowing that we were only staying one night and that Portlaoise is not exactly a culinary mecca, we had phoned the previous evening to enquire as to dining in the hotel.The lady on the phone told us that that was no problem as we would be able to dine in their wonderful restraunt.When checking in we asked for a table to be told that they were booked out. We asked why it was not recommended that booking would be advisable when we spoke on the phone the previous day.No satisfactory answer was given.We asked to speak to the duty manager who was of no assistance.She smiled throughout the conversation but her smile did not reach her eyes and she was only going through the motions.

Our alternative was to book a table in the Italian place run in the hotel which we did.I think it is called Spagos.

I accompanied the childern to the indoor swimming pool.The dressing room was full,but this can happen.a bigger problem is that most of the contents of the pool seemed to be on the floor of the dressing room.The tiles on the floor do not allow for water run off and as a result you get changed in a swamp!

This pattern is repeated when you get out to the pool with makeshift mats for people to walk on. If you happen to stray off these narrow mats, which my young son did, you are back into a very slippy swamp.In all, the pool was a very unpleasent experience and one would have to imagine, an unhealthy one.

Early that evening we had a drink in Mollys bar. The pattern of of general neglect was repeated here with us having to clean over a table for ourselves.Being a smoker I went outside to the smoking area.The table there was full of empty bottles and glasses.The ashtrays were overflowing.

Later went to Spagos.The food was unremarkable, but that was to be expected.I have two abiding memories of Spagos. One was the fumes from the kitchen and the other the wonderful staff.Poor ventilation causes cooking fumes to waft into the dining area.This is bad enough to cause you to blink and wipe your eyes!

The staff in Spagos were exceptionally good.From manager to waitress they are to be complimented.Suggest some decent hotel recruit them as it would be a shame to see them remain on the titanic!

Childern went to their rooms and we went for a drink after the meal.Went for a smoke before going to bed and the same galsses ashtrays etc festooned the the two tables in the smoking area.This was four hours after first spotting them!

If you insist on going to this hotel do not get a room in the front.Was woken at 3am to shouts screams etc.The nightclub is directly( and I mean 20m !) from the front of the hotel. Everybody spilled out of the club under my bedroom window and it was impossible to sleep.

Without decent sleep I decided to go for a short walk at 6.30am. I passed reception and asked for the Sunday papers. The man on duty looked at me as if I was mad. I was told the earliest I could expect them was 8am.These papers are widely available in shops at 10 pm on saturday in dublin which is 50 miles away! This is not a four star hotel.

I have posted reviews on hotels previously and try to be as balanced and as fair as possible. With that in mind my advice is to avoid this hotel.

I stayed here for one night at a friend's wedding. It's pretty decent - clean, modern, but like most big conference hotels it lacks atmosphere and soul. We stayed on a special "wedding rate" of €160 for our room ( I have stayed in comparable 4* hotels around the country at wedding rates of about €120). According to our room door, the standard rack rate is €270 per night which is on par with 5* hotels like the Merrion Hotel or the Four Seasons. Not worth it!

The room was decent, and clean, but without a minibar, sofa, or balcony. The heat was unbearable, and although we turned off our radiator, this didn't seem to work, so we had to call reception and ask that the heat be turned off. The bathroom was clean with plenty of hot water and fresh toiletries. I found the staff to be pleasant and helpful.

All in all, an average but over-priced hotel.