The good: very close to the Dublin orbital motorway, in a secluded area by a canal. Decent bar and restaurant, which seemed crowded with locals (always a good sign). Pleasant decor and friendly staff. Large, clean, well-appointed rooms, with a spacious bathroom attached.

However: all the rooms are at basement level. My room was far away from the bar, so instead of being kept awake by bar noise, I was kept awake by the extremely loud extractor fans and by the trains rattling past for variety. The view was onto a brick wall alongside the railway track. Oh, and the bathroom door didn't close properly.

If only the hotel could have been picked up and put a little further away from the railway, and if only the extractors could somehow be quietened.... this would be an excellent hotel. Maybe for those who fall asleep easily, it is!

I was really looking forward to staying in this hotel as it really looks nice from a distance and i have heard good reviews about the bar and food, but we were very disappointed. The rooms are all downstairs - and the carpets in the hallways were really filthy and there was a strong smell of bleach on the way in which was very offputting. Our room was very small and very old fashioned. There were adaptor plugs in the sockets and a really old portable tv which showed only rte and tv3. The shower curtain was really filthywith mould as were the tiles in the shower. Very noisy as the bar and reception are overhead and you can hear high heels walking around all night. The only positives i could find were that the bed sheets and towels were very clean.

This has been our second visit to the Twelfth Lock and unfortunately, the experience was not as good as last time, one year ago.

But let's start with the positive remarks: We like the location of the hotel right on the Royal Canal, it is so peaceful and idyllic. We like the design that reminds of a boat and we like the restaurant with the comfortable arm chairs, the wooden, partly open walls that create some privacy, and the bar. The food is good and they have a big choice of cocktails (unfortunately, they changed the cocktail menu; we found them not as good as last year). To mention is also the lovely staff of the hotel, both at the reception and the restaurant. They are so helpful and friendly and they even welcomed us back.

The negative remarks: Since April this year, they have Friday Night Jam Sessions which is a cool thing if you want some live entertainment, but if you want to sleep, you definitely need earplugs which we didn't have. I couldn't sleep til 2 am... It really was very loud. Saturday night was better but not much. The place really is a popular spot for locals. We also regretted that they do not have a children's seat in the restaurant. As in many places in Dublin, a sign says that children are not aloud after 7 pm... We didn't mind...
It has been mentioned before that you hear noise from the trains - it is true, but at least on our side of the corridor (which is the one further away from the railway) it did not disturb us. We regretted it more that the rooms are downstairs, on the basement level (the hotel only has two levels, basement and ground floor). To have the view of the canal when looking out of the window would be fantastic...

This is a charming hotel that though its rooms need a bit of a face lift, were very clean and comfortable. As noted in a couple of the negative reviews, the train is a bit loud but the trains do not run from 11:30 PM to 6:00 AM. If you are a heavy sleeper, the train will not bother you. And if you are there to site see, you probably won't be back in your room till about 11 PM and will probably be up around the time the trains start again. If you are not a heavy sleeper and/or you intend to be in bed before 11 PM and up later than 6 AM, then there is still an option for you which is to book a room on the canal side. We had originally booked a room on the train side not knowing about the issues with the train beforehand. We stayed in this room one night and switched to a canal side room for a reason other than the train. We booked a room that evidently gets the afternoon sun and couldn't seem to get it cooled down enough for me to be able to sleep well even with the windows open. The management did bring a fan for us and were very accommodating but it still was too hot so we got another room the next night and I slept very well. We were there in the middle of the week so I don't know about any issues with noise coming from the upstairs bar. If they did have anything going on, we heard nothing and I have a very keen sense of hearing. We had a traditional irish breakfast the next day and it was the best I have ever had. Unfortunately, due to the current economic situation, they are having to make cuts in staff so they will only be offering a Continental breakfast. But it is in a lovely setting and what we found especially attractive is that it is just a two-minute walk to the train stop! The price was cheap,the location fantastic, the staff and food were great and the room was comfortable and clean. Our experience was a reasonably pleasant one but I guess I would have to stay over a weekend to fully recommend it. I definitely could not recommend it despite all the positives if I couldn't get a decent night's sleep because of noise!