Ten Irish hotels make it into the world’s top 700 By Jon Myles 
IRISH hotels are holding their own internationally on a list of the 700 top hotels — outperforming much bigger countries such as Germany and Spain.
Ten Irish hotels have won a place on the coveted Gold List compiled by Condé Nast Traveller magazine from contributions from readers who have stayed there.
Only nine hotels from Germany and Spain made the cut and just four Scottish hotels are listed. England has 21 listings and Italy has 24.
Other small European countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands are not included in the Gold List at all and only have two hotels listed in the reserve section.
The Irish quota has improved since last year when just eight hotels made the 2003 list.
Longueville House, Co. Cork, and Waterford Castle earned the Gold List accolade this year together with a new appearance by the Mount Juliet Conrad.
Mount Juliet also scooped thousands of European hotels by leading the design score for the region.
The other highest ranking hotels for 2004 were Dromoland Castle, in Co. Clare, Cashel House Hotel in Co. Galway, Adare Manor in Co. Limerick and Ashford Castle in Co. Mayo.
Kerry is the only county with two establishments on the list: Sheen Falls Lodge and Park Hotel in Kenmare.
The Park Hotel Kenmare is also one of just three hotels in Europe to be ranked particularly for its quality of service.
“The service is so personal that guests feel as if they’re in a good friend’s house,” said the listing notes.
Sheen Falls is praised for the fact that you can watch the cascading falls and Kenmare Bay while in your bathrobe, while Dromoland staff are credited with treating anonymous guests the same as the British bigwig one table over.
The Merrion Hotel in Dublin was praised for Patrick Guilbaud’s restaurant, which has two Michelin stars.
The full list is available at: www.concierge.com.
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