Charles Synnott understands that to run an hotel, you need to be an hotelier, that most noble, and difficult, of vocations. In fact, Mr Synnott runs two hotels in this book, and it is their difference, and their distinctiveness, that appeals to us. Brooks Hotel in Dublin is the only Dublin hotel in this book, and it is the quintessential city hotel. But the Connemara Coast, then, is a quintessential resort hotel, a place to escape to from the city, a place to enjoy sea air, good food, a beautiful art collection, along with excellent service from a crack team who know their work inside out, led by manager Ann Downey.
The Coast is a place to relax, and the staff manage to create the Ocean Liner Effect perfectly: when you stay here, you are away from it all, the workaday world has departed, and you and your family are on vacation. That’s the Ocean Liner Effect. To create and maintain this feeling is the true art and craft of the hotelier, and you will rarely see it practised better than it is practised in this special West Coast getaway.
