Staying At The Hendrick Smithfield In Dublin
Below I’m going to share my honest review and experience staying at The Hendrick Smithfield in Dublin, Ireland. Some things were great and some things I didn’t love. I share it all with you below.
Location of The Hendrick Smithfield
The location of The Hendrick Smithfield is amazing. It’s located in the Smithfield neighbourhood which has become quite popular over the last few years as they’ve built up and expanded the Smithfield Plaza.
The Smithfield Plaza has everything you need and is home to some of Dublin’s best coffee shops, restaurants, grocery stores, and even the Jameson Whiskey Distillery which I included in my guide to the best local Dublin tours.
Another thing I love about this location is that it was off the main busy streets so it was quiet but not far from the action if that’s what you want. It’s only a few blocks from River Liffey and is almost directly across the river from one of the most famous pubs in Dublin – The Brazen Head.
Check-In
The check-in process was easy and simple. One thing that they offered which we have never encountered before was that we could pay for an early check-in. The fee for early check-in at The Hendrick Smithfield is 20 Euros.
Normally if a hotel has rooms available and you arrive early, you’re able to get into your room, for no extra fee. We arrived early and headed straight to The Hendrick from the airport after the flight from Canada so we were ready to get into our room. I personally didn’t love the extra fee because it felt a bit like we were being used. Obviously they had a room available, but only if we paid. Didn’t love that because we already paid a decent price to stay at this hotel. Oh well, we paid the fee and got to our room.
Rooms
The rooms in every boutique hotel I’ve ever stayed in are usually very small but designed well. That was the case for the rooms at The Hendrick Smithfield.
Similar to my experience at Ruby Molly in Dublin, the rooms do not have a fridge in them. This seems to be the norm in Ireland.
There was a small desk with chair, no real closet but they do have a rod with hangers on the wall which worked well.
Rooms were clean and bed was comfortable.
Lobby & Lounge Area
The lobby lounge and bar area is very aesthetically trendy and includes lots of places to sit, including a full outdoor patio area. The patio area and the entire hotel are full of unique and colourful graffiti-inspired abstract art.
It definitely gives a cool vibe to the entire hotel. They actually encourage you to check out each floor of the hotel to see the original art on display. As someone who loves colourful abstract art, the vibe of this hotel was right up my alley.
Breakfast is not included but you can choose to include it for an extra fee. I was surprised when I went to get a latte, I was instructed to get it from the machine and then I still had to pay for it. If I knew I had to pay for it and it was just going to be machine-made, I would’ve opted to go to a Dublin coffee shop instead (which I did every other morning).
We did enjoy staying at The Hendrick Smithfield in Dublin mostly because of the convenient location and the cleanliness of the hotel. That being said, we did find that the service in both Dublin boutique hotels we stayed at wasn’t overly friendly compared to what we’re used to in higher end boutique hotels.
