AC Hotel Belfast, NI - Should you pay a visit?
Located in the modern and redeveloped area of Donegall Quay, alongside spectacles like the Titanic Museum, AC Hotel certainly isn’t out of place in this part of town. It’s a fair walk from the centre of the city, around 20 minutes, but is also amongst one of the newest hotels in Belfast having opened late in 2018. For those who are also interested and collect or need to burn some Bonvoy points, it’s the only Marriott group hotel option in Belfast and, I think, all of Northern Ireland.
The building is modern but I wouldn’t say it’s particularly pretty - it just looks okay. It reminds me a lot of when you visit the area around the ExCeL Centre in Docklands, London with many new builds, mostly hotels, that lack much character. This theme, thankfully, doesn’t continue to the inside. It embraces a clean look featuring a cool Nordic colour palette of greys, forest greens and dark browns - which is pleasing on the eye. The reception area is small and functional but leads onto the excellent dining area which I’ll come onto later.
Check in was relatively quick, mostly down to the lack of people staying in the hotel at the time, but did not offer any digital check in or key cards to reduce Covid-19 contact (which some Marriott, mostly ex-Starwood hotels offer).
We opted for a Standard King Room - not the top tier offering but a solid option nonetheless. I was a little apprehensive that we had been spoiled by our stay at the excellent Eden Locke in Edinburgh on the previous leg of our journey, but this hotel was good in a different kind of way. First, and most importantly, the bed was HUGE and undeniably comfortable. I am 191cm tall and I couldn’t reach across from one side of the bed to the other. This made for a great night of sleep every night of our visit. The bathroom was stylish in a minimalist kind of way with high pressure showers that work as expected - I only mark the hotel down on not offering a rainfall shower, but that may be due to this not being a higher tier Marriott property. There was a sturdy table with comfortable chairs for two in front of the expansive floor to ceiling window, which doesn’t open, to reveal an excellent view over the river and towards the Titanic Museum. Unlike Ibis Budget in Manchester, there was functioning A/C that worked…although the October Belfast weather meant it was used more for heating than cooling. Finally, there was the quintessential need for any Brit of an in-room kettle alongside sachets of instant coffee, milk and Irish tea bags.
Our rate was a special to entice people to visit during Covid which allowed you to pay at the hotel and included breakfast during our stay which isn’t as standard. In usual times, the hotel serves breakfast as a buffet but had adapted this to reduce the spread of the virus (although drinks, strangely, were still self-serve). They offered an excellent spread which started with a tiered plating of pastries and the option to then proceed onto cooked breakfast. Like a regular buffet, you could request for more to be served and they gave you the option of having your eggs in different ways - making it a better experience, in my opinion, than the old buffet method! I would like to make a special mention to the waiter at breakfast time. He was an older Northern Irish gentleman who was extremely welcoming every day of our visit and imparted some good knowledge on Belfast and NI - he is a great asset to the AC Hotel front of house team and made the breakfast experience memorable.
In terms of Covid adaptations, AC Hotel felt very normal. Masks were mandated in any public areas of the hotel and were only allowed to be taken off when sitting at your dining table - in line with Northern Irish Assembly legislation at the time. Like Edinburgh, it felt like people were perhaps more abiding to the rules - maybe it was just that we were in a hotel settings and people were more aware of the rules? I’m not sure, but it felt different to how people disobey rules in London and the South. The one strange element to me was their Covid policy of not holding luggage securely. We did not have a flight back to London until the evening, almost 9 hours after check out, and didn’t want to carry around whilst touring the city. We ended up leaving them to the side of the reception unsecured - not ideal, but we weighed up that there was nothing too precious in there if it was stolen. I do not understand why the hotel wouldn’t just be able to wipe down the handle and take the luggage in securely. Regardless, I hope this policy has now evolved as we normalise towards Covid becoming endemic.
Above: Titanic Museum viewed from the hotel
AC Hotel is a solid option if you’re visiting Belfast. They offer a very comfortable place to set down for the night, breakfast offerings that get you ready for the day ahead and helpful staff - at prices that are in the mid-range around GBP 90 per night.
Most images in this article are courtesy of Marriott.com & AC Hotel Belfast.
