Sarsfield Bridge Hotel

Berty

So the RIA is no longer renewing their lease with the hotel owners so will it revert back to a hotel?

Hopefully as the location is brilliant but they will have to spend a lot of money and work very hard to renew their reputation.

Something similar happened with the Waterfront hotel in Salthill, Galway. That was being used by the RIA for asylum seekers and I think its only recovering now.

The Ridgepool hotel in Ballina, Mayo also suffered a similar fate but never recovered. The Dunne Group(now gone) sold it off but the owners could never make a go of it because the locals turned their backs on the hotel.

17th of June is when the contract is to end with the RIA and the hotel.

black & white

I hope it does, I used to go in to the bar there and the owner/manager was a very nice guy. Used to be a good crowd but they gradually drifted off elsewhere.

Best of luck to them.

Aidric

It was a shame it was leased as a Refugee Centre in the first place. It was my local and used to get a good crowd in there. Lunches did well there also. The bar was one of the nicest in town.

phill106

Aidric wrote: »

It was a shame it was leased as a Refugee Centre in the first place. It was my local and used to get a good crowd in there. Lunches did well there also. The bar was one of the nicest in town.

Yeah bar was lovely for lunch on a saturday. Probably do well to have the hotel side as a hostel, but keep it totally seperate from the bar. Not sure what the layout of the hotel side is though, whether they had seperate facilities or what.
Actually a hostel wouldnt even need a kitchen would it? Stick a vending machine in the corner, sorted!

bazz26

The last year or two before the Pier One bar closed the bar itself was looking very tired and in need of renovation. At one point there were rips in the seats and the furniture looked withered. However I don't think the owners at the time were making any money as you could go in there at on a Saturday night and have the bar to yourself unlike when it first opened you could not get in the door it was that packed.

Actually the Saturday night crowd are funny like that, they frequent the newest, loudest place where it's cool to be seen and then move on in herds to the next new attraction. The Cornmarket Bar suffered a similar faith.

Duff Man Jr.

Berty wrote: »

So the RIA is no longer renewing their lease with the hotel owners so will it revert back to a hotel?

Hopefully as the location is brilliant but they will have to spend a lot of money and work very hard to renew their reputation.

Something similar happened with the Waterfront hotel in Salthill, Galway. That was being used by the RIA for asylum seekers and I think its only recovering now.

The Ridgepool hotel in Ballina, Mayo also suffered a similar fate but never recovered. The Dunne Group(now gone) sold it off but the owners could never make a go of it because the locals turned their backs on the hotel.

17th of June is when the contract is to end with the RIA and the hotel.

Stayed there a year or two ago, the fact that its a dump has more to do with it not recovering than asylum seekers.

Amazotheamazing

bazz26 wrote: »

Actually the Saturday night crowd are funny like that, they frequent the newest, loudest place where it's cool to be seen and then move on in herds to the next new attraction. The Cornmarket Bar suffered a similar faith.

Both were fundamentally flawed bars imo. The lay out in each was crap.

Berty

Duff Man Jr. wrote: »

Stayed there a year or two ago, the fact that its a dump has more to do with it not recovering than asylum seekers.

Ah yes the Dunne Group let it slip thats true but it had so much going for it. It was the only "GOOD" centrally located hotel in Ballina and had a great leisure centre which the locals used in droves but when they sold their soul to the asylum seekers they kept the leisure centre open for the locals. The locals shunned the hotel because they brought asylum seekers right into the city centre.

Some of the rooms were facing onto the outdoor seating area so you couldn't open your rooms for the smoke.

But back to Limerick. Again good location but they sold their souls to the RIA so can they recover any reputation because none of the other hotels who went down this route could.

However, they only have 1 review on Tripadvisor going back to 2006 so maybe they can just start again at square one if they renovate.

gaf1983

It would be a good idea to turn it into a youth hostel, but as others have said, keep the bar/restaurant separate from this. Limerick city doesn't have any hostels, I remember reading that some group wanted to convert the old Globe nightclub into a hostel, why not beat them to it?

Insect Overlord

gaf1983 wrote: »

It would be a good idea to turn it into a youth hostel, but as others have said, keep the bar/restaurant separate from this. Limerick city doesn't have any hostels, I remember reading that some group wanted to convert the old Globe nightclub into a hostel, why not beat them to it?

I thought they'd changed the plans for that place to turn it into something very similar to what was on Sarsfield Street.