Beer or Points? Holiday Inn Express Dublin Airport

Cheap flights under $500 from San Francisco to Dublin motivated me to buy my last two tickets to Europe and then catch a low cost carrier to the city I really wanted to visit. In November, I flew British Airways to Dublin via London and last month KLM to Amsterdam and Aer Lingus to Dublin on a $449 round trip.

In December, I stayed at Holiday Inn Express Dublin Airport and we stayed at the hotel again in February. I wanted to stay at the adjacent Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport Northwood in February to fulfill one of my Set Your Sights IHG promotion offers for 12,000 bonus points with two Crowne Plaza stays by April 30. The rate was 50 EUR more than Holiday Inn Express. The hotels are adjacent to each other in an area called Northwood, about four miles from the airport.

The complimentary hotel shuttle runs 5am to midnight. Airport pick-up and drop-off is at bus station #14. Dublin Airport has two terminals and the bus parking spaces are in a central airport lot and numbered from 1 to 18 or so. You can travel onward to all over Ireland from the bus stops at the airport. We lucked out to catch the Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport shuttle just before it left the airport for the hotel. Good I knew directly where to go for bus stop #14 from my December stay at the airport hotel.

Beer or Points?

Cayeleen checked us into the hotel. I was given a choice of points or a free pint of beer. Which do you think I chose?

You are wrong if you guessed I chose beer.

Kelley looked at the room and was unimpressed at the size of the room and bed. It looked just like the hotel room I had slept in ten weeks earlier, except as a corner room there were two windows to open for fresh air. In Amsterdam earlier that day we had a rough time with Kelley getting her wallet and eyeglasses stolen from her purse.

I was happy she still had her passport and I had a second chance to snap the blue light bathroom photo I did not take during my December stay at the hotel.

Holiday Inn Express Dublin Airport room photos can be seen in an article I wrote in December comparing the small Dublin Airport room size at about 150 sq. ft. to a much larger Holiday Inn Express Port Hueneme , California hotel room.

Loyalty Traveler – But we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night (and earned one free night) December 22, 2015.

The nagging question: Beer or Points?

So there I am at midnight in Dublin, Kelley asleep in bed after 30 hours of international travel and I can’t get the hotel Wi-Fi to work on my computer. I read the slip of paper from the front desk stating I will get 300 IHG Rewards Club points as my IHG Rewards Club Platinum amenity.

You are right if you guessed I chose beer over points.

A pint of beer had a 5.50 EUR value, whereas 300 IHG Rewards Club points is about a $2.00 value for me.

Cayeleen, the front desk staffer also worked as the Holiday Inn Express Dublin Airport bartender. She canceled the 300 bonus points and poured me a pint of Heineken.

Big shout out to Cayeleen of HIX Dublin Airport

Big shout out to Cayeleen of the Holiday Inn Express Dublin Airport for her vital assistance in helping us out during our stay. We arrived at the Holiday Inn Express Dublin Airport about 12 hours after Kelley’s wallet was stolen with two credit cards lost, while walking through Amsterdam Centraal train station.

The police in Amsterdam recommended contacting the credit card companies right away to cancel our cards, however, they did not offer to let us use their phone for the international collect calls to the numbers on the cards.

I tried using my computer at HIX Dublin Airport to find I was unable to connect to Wi-Fi at HIX. When I went to the public phone in the Holiday Inn Express lobby, there was no dial tone.

I use my email for all communication when outside the USA. Figuring out foreign phone connections can be challenging for the inexperienced.

Cayeleen at the front desk of the Holiday Inn Express helped me access the collect phone call connections. I canceled the two credit cards with no fraudulent activity reported on either card.

The wireless connection issue turned out to be due to my stay in December and Wi-Fi worked fine after I deleted the old Wi-Fi connection for the HIX off my computer.

Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport Northwood and Holiday Inn Express Dublin Airport Northwood are two hotels with a small conference center between them. The Crowne Plaza is a good looking hotel. I snapped photos of the lobby and conference center area to share in another article. (link to come)

There is a large green space in Santry-Demesne Regional Park across the street from the hotels. This was the site of a 1703 estate house that was demolished in 1959. The 72 acres became a public park in 2004.

Holiday Inn Express Dublin Airport is 25,000 points for a reward night.

I booked a 69 EUR flexible day of arrival cancellation rate, about $80 USD. For that price, we had complimentary airport shuttle transportation, breakfast for two and one pint of Heineken. Good deal.