Great National Hotel Ballina

Recently got married in the Great national hotel ballina and we both can't recommend this venue enough. The food is amazing, the rooms they have for events are stunning and the staff are so incredibly tuned in you can't help but feel like a celebrity everytime you visit. Massive respect for Denise the hotels wedding coordinator. She was fantastic from start to finish, she and her staff had the place looking absolutely amazing on the day. When you see first hand how good of a job Denise & her team do its really not hard to understand why they have won wedding venue of the year. We've seen over 40 hotels across the country in our search for a venue, the great national was the last venue we saw and it only took us 2 minutes to decide the great National was the perfect fit. If you're looking to book a venue I highly recommend popping in to see Denise, you won't get better treatment anywhere else. A special shout out to Alex. Everytime we came into the restaurant he'd greet us with the biggest smile & wave. He couldn't have been more helpful and we were delighted to see him working on our big day. He helped a very nervous groom by keeping a cold pint in his hand and constantly reassuring him everything was ok and that the wife to be won't be too late You honestly won't meet a nicer person then him. In short: Best wedding venue, fantastic wedding coordinator, lovely staff, excellent management team, food is amazing (top class chef's), the hotel itself is beautiful and very conveniently located. Highly recommend the Great National hotel ballina for any events, weekends away, spa treatments or even just a bite to eat

We were very disappointed that we couldn't use to pool due to it being too cold. Looking at previous reviews, this seems to be an ongoing issue. The staff were poorly trained and floors hadn't been swept, highchair wasn't cleaned between dinner the previous night and breakfast the following morning. Felt more like a two or three star hotel than a four star.

We were very disappointed with the chairs in the room. They were nothing like what were in the pictures on the website. They were hard stackable chairs that you would see in a hall for a meeting. They were very uncomfortable. The bar was very cold on the Wednesday night. We asked to move from near the door where it was very cold. On the plus side, the food was very good and reasonably priced. The staff were all kind and helpful. One other thing I would say that as a 4 star hotel, I would have expected more bathrooms with shower cubicles. The only rooms with a shower were accessible rooms which have connecting doors to the next room. We have bad experiences of these types of rooms where there is no privacy as you can hear everything in the other room through the connecting door.

Cold shower 2 of the days due no hot water…….. The rooms are in need of an uplift. Felt a bit like a hostel rather than a hotel. Definitely not 4 star! Breakfast was ok, although service was a bit slow the first day. Didn’t get to use the leisure facilities.

A very pleasurable stay in a fabulous hotel. The staff were outstanding, we were greeted with a smile from start to finish. We ate in the bar on one of the evenings and were blown away with the fabulous food and value for money. The rooms were clean and tidy. The pool was a little cold but got used to it.

We stayed here for 3 miserable nights. This trip away was meant to be relaxing and romatic and it was far from it. The hotel seems like a nice upstating hotel as it 4 stars but we were fooled. We greeted by refugees and a check in girls who was nice an pleasent. The room is baige and offers the bare minimum comforts the bathroom is small croggy. Tv is small and out dated which suits the room. Walls are thin could hear foot steps from outside woke me up a few times. When we came back down after sorting our clothes out and freshend up we went down for drinks and food. We pre booked and waited good 40 mins to be seated after all the refugees were in and out pushing through . We finally get a table cramped in the corner. We were not treated like guest at all. Waiting another 20mins for a drink and then starts nothing was orgainsed. Not managed well at all. The food was ok nothing to write home about. We tried to get few drinks but the bar is very small and we took our drinks upstairs as we felt safer. The next day we came down for breakfast simple lay out. Had as twice for the coffee. But it filled us up and we explored Mayo. We came back around 1pm for a swim and to get ready for the evening. No electricity or water in the place. Couldn't believe it. We sat down waiting for a staff member to explain what was happening no body cared all i could find was refugees in their droves. They had no water or facilities till around 9pm. Next day we got a swim in pool are is unhygienic and very run down. Images on google or here is filtered. At this stage couldnt wait to check out. After the 3 nights we checked out and I gave back this feedback to deaf ears funny enough no manager around , they took my name number for a phone call back never happened so I retured the favour myself and rang them asking for compensation which they agreed nothing happend left. I wouldn't recommend this hotel to anyone It was waste if money. Not grand about it.