James K.
Yelp
Cheerful, affordable and central (4/5 green stars also)
My brother and I stayed for 3 nights in an apartment in Hotel Isaacs. It's a 5-minute walk from the bus stop for the AirCoach from Dublin, and less than a 10-minute walk to the Kent train station, St. Patrick's Street, and the Crawford Art Gallery. The rate was just under €100 per night, which is pretty good considering that it's so centrally located and included two bedrooms (comfy beds) a living room area and adjoining kitchen. We used the kitchen just a little but it's pretty well stocked, with a full oven/hob, fridge, microwave, toaster, kettle, dishwasher, a few pots and pans and a full set of china and utensils. Sound insulation on the windows was not very good, so noise from traffic and the hotel laneway was fairly loud at times, but most of it subsided by 11 PM. For sure, noisy neighbors could ruin your night if you are unlucky. There were a few quirks - the bathroom light didn't come on until 3 seconds after you hit the switch, the hot tap had really low pressure while the cold tap was such a torrent that it pushed water back out of any item you were filling! Hotel upkeep could be a bit better too - one lamp had no bulb, the carpet was a little stained in places, but overall it was clean and cheerful. I also found the reception staff to be a bit odd - there was construction going on the whole time, and instead of apologizing at check-in, the receptionist kept asking us about whether we were excited about the gin bar they were building. It would have been better to give us a free gin to compensate for the noise and disruption than to try to convince us that the building work was very exciting, as if we were children. None of these things bothered me a huge amount, and ultimately the hotel is a bargain considering the location.
For social and environmental impact, I'm giving them 4/5 green stars. Isaac's is owned by the PREM hotel group, who own around 40 hotels, mainly in Ireland, the UK and Belgium. PREM have virtually nothing to say about sustainability or social issues so they need to do better at communicating any efforts that they make. On Glasdoor, employees give PREM a mediocre score, citing the poor pay and benefits. Besides this, my score is based mostly on the observations below...
Greenes Restaurant is a highlight of the hotel - they do a good job of transparency on their menu, and list all of their suppliers on their website. There's an emphasis on local, organic, free-range and even foraged ingredients and 95% of ingredients are sourced within 50 km. In our rooms (apartment) they had a few things in place to save resources. All taps operated on a push mechanism - this could be annoying for some but it does save water (except in the case of our torrential kitchen tap). Their shampoo and liquid soap came in pump dispensers that the staff could top up for each new set of guests, saving on unnecessary plastic bottle waste. The soap and shampoo was from Gilchrest and Soames, who tend to avoid synthetic or animal-based ingredients and also don't test on animals. Tea and coffee supplies were not so ethical: coffee from Nescafe and tea from Barry's (although they did also supply Rainforest Alliance certified tea from Tetley). They had a separate bin in the kitchen for recycling. Thanks to the manager for providing updates on some of their conservation efforts: installation of LED lightbulbs and eco-flow shower heads, encouragement of towel re-use, and waterless urinals. They've reduced energy use from their boiler by 60% and will probably expect further reductions when they eco-update the apartments next year.
Suggestions for improvement: Isaac's need to do a better job at educating guests on their heating system. After we checked in, I called reception to say that it was way too hot and they were kind of snippy, saying guests are not supposed to touch the thermostats! I hadn't even touched them (the previous guests must have turned them up) and as it turned out we didn't need to turn the heat on at all for three days. The heat only turns on when you put the key card in the slot inside the door, but this isn't explained at all in the room. So they would save a lot of energy (and avoid overheated guests) if they just included a notice on how this works. So, overall there are some pros and some cons and I think they deserve 4/5 green stars. Interested in writing green star reviews? If so, contact me! (greenstarsproject)