I stayed at the Grand for 4 nights recently as part of a golf holiday package. It is conveniently located in Tralee and there are lovely gardens just around the corner as well as shops, pubs, and restaurants within easy strolling distance. The standard of the rooms was resonable apart from very poor water pressure. The staff were friendly and accomodating even going as far as to open the kitchen early for us one morning when we had an early tee time to make. The only really bad part of staying there was that for some reason the hotel gives over one of its meeting rooms to an after-hours nightclub on Saturday nights and even from two floors above the noise was very loud, very late. As far as I could tell this is only a Saturday night problem but I'm sure there are some angry guests every Sunday morning.

I recently stayed at the Grand Hotel with a group of seven other guys on a golf trip. This hotel was a great find in a wonderful city that is off the normal tourist track. The accommendation were first rate, clean and well maintained. The bar and restaurant were everything you would want in an Irish experience. Reasonable too. Dinners with starter and main course and wine for under 30 euro per person. Breakfast is included in the room rate and was an extensive offering. The staff made us feel right at home. The night manager even bought us a round on the house our first night. There was misic in the bar and the local patrons were chatty and helpful. Overall it was a great experience.

In June, 2002, we spent 3 nights at this hotel, checking in on a Thursday. On check in, we were advised that we may hear some music coming from a disco that the hotel runs on Fridays & Saturdays. We took the room set aside for us with the understanding that the next night we would be given a room that "is very, very quiet- you won't hear a thing". The first room was quite beautiful & spacious. The second room was so small that we could barely get by the 2 full size beds. We were willing to put up with this for a quiet night. Well, we were awake until past 3:00AM. The music was loud (loud enough for us to understand most of the words) and it was very noisy when the disco let out. We complained and were told that our last night would be discounted. In fact, after we had left for Ireland the hotel had charged us a deposit on our credit card and informed us by email- problem was, we were not checking email while on vacation. On checking out, we ended up paying the entire bill as if we did not give a deposit. We were later refunded for some of the money by credit card, but still ended up paying more than we should have. I don't remember the exact amount, but it was somewhere around $50- I didn't dispute it because I just wanted to forget about the place. The management insisted that the room was quiet with the implication that we were lying.
As an alternative, the Abbey Gate Hotel looked very nice from the outside, but that's all I can say about it. The city of Tralee was friendly and has a very nice city park. We found the location good for trips to Kerry and Dingle.