The best way to describe my and my partners stay at Destiny was a collection of minor inconveniences that added up to a deeply dissatisfying stay.
To give you a flavour of what happened in our night stay:
- Check in starts at 3, we'd dropped out bags around 12 (very handy) and came back to get the room key at 3:30. We arrived at our room to find it hadn't been cleaned, so back down to reception we went. They did resolve it pretty quickly and the room was cleaned to a good standard when we came back after our next activity exploring Dublin.
- Multiple small things in the room were broken or poorly assembled in a way that made them harder to use, for example: the toilet roll holder has been put on the wall upside down so the roll fell off every time I went to use it. The sliding shower door has come off its rollers. There's no Aircon and the room was HOT all the time but having the blinds closed and the windows open was a real challenge because the window opened into the room. The kitchen door in our flat had two broken hinges so it was stuck half way open. Since this is a fire door, it's a safety risk, I reported this to the front desk and to their credit this was fixed the following day.
- After a long day of exploring Dublin on our second day, my partner and I got back to find our room key had been deactivated and our room door has been locked with the door open by a member of staff. Apparently there had been a mistake during our check in that meant it didn't look like we'd arrived, so someone had deactivated our keys and gone to check if our room was clear for another guest. We were let into our apartment by staff but were told we'd have to wait 2 hours for the person that could reprogramme keys to come on shift at 10PM - thankfully the reception desk is manned 24/7 so this was an inconvenience not a major problem if we'd wanted to go out for the evening.
- To compound the absurdness of the the last point, you have to check-in online before arriving and pay a €100 damage deposit on arrival, which wasn't mentioned in the Airbnb ad. So if you decide to book this place, make sure that you have that spare in your travel budget.
- Our room was on the second floor, directly outside our window was construction work that started between 7:30 and 8am every morning. I did not get a single relaxing morning lie in all week, the noise was unbearably loud and the room was too hot to close the window to isolate from it. This was in June 2022 so they may have completed construction by the time you are looking to book, but I'd recommend checking.
- Everything from tea and coffee to soap and dishwasher tablets you have to ask for individually at reception, which just made basic tasks slightly more inconvenient - they didn't ask on arrival if we need the things they provide and show us a list, we just realised the ad said they provide them and we only realised we didn't have them and had to go and ask when it came to needing them. They were also out of stock of handsoap when we went to ask for it.
On a more positive note, the location was great for being able to walk around central Dublin. Staff were friendly and helpful.
However, I really wouldn't recommend picking this place when so many similar facilities and price ranges are also available. The experience really didn't feel worth £450 for 4 nights.