Shearwater Hotel & Spa

Lovely, friendly and helpful staff.

The view from our room of an empty yard and old buildings

Location

Bed in room had dirty stains all along base of bed. Not what you expect in a hotel, let alone a five star hotel I do not rate this hotel as 4 star!!

Great staff, great facilities

Everything

N/a

Breakfast was very good. Plenty of variety and easy to access.

The room was far too hot. Couldn't open the window more than a couple of inches. 3 people staying but housekeeping only had the room set up for 2 despite notifying reception. Room was quite dated, furniture scuffed and had to step into a bath to have a shower. Tap loose and loose tile on the bathroom floor.

Piscina e ristorante

Il bagno un po’ vecchio

Spotlessly clean, friendly staff, would definitely recommend this hotel.

We had dinner and breakfast in the hotel and the food was very good as was the service. We used the swimming pool, sauna, steam room and jacuzzi and they where very good.

We stayed in July 2026. The heat in the room was totally unbearable. We requested a fan which helped a bit. There was no fridge in the room to put in bottles of water or soft drinks to keep cool. We have stayed in this hotel numerous times over the years and overall we where very disappointed in it. There was no atmosphere.

Such a child friendly hotel

Beds were comfortable Cold water available on corridors

No music in the bar area

Very good breakfast

Equipement sportif complet, avec une belle piscine. Le restaurant associé est de bon rapport qualité / prix avec un choix pour tous les goûts. Par contre, il est bruyant: le personnel devrait indiquer aux parents d'enfants qu'ils fassent moins de bruit

Voir au dessus

Beautiful hotel and great staff. Leisure centre is very good. Disappointed with the atmosphere in the bar/restaurant in the evenings. No music and no children around. Supervised club would have been better for the evening rather than the mornings

Writing a review after last posting being there is no music in the bar. Well I can tell you the day after their review, 11.45pm the music is blaring from the bar heard from the second floor and won’t finish until 12.30 am! My 5 year old fell asleep thankfully while I’m passing the time and posting a review which I usually don’t do but might as well while I can’t sleep! This is not a four star hotel. The star rating should be reviewed. The hotel is filthy. I have stayed in varied starred hotels and the least you can expect is cleanliness. Worst Example. I noticed when I used the bathroom in the room that the toilet roll was not a full roll or even close too which I don’t mind if it is continued on from previous guests but there was blood on the top of the roll and when I took it off the hook the inside cardboard had a lot of blood on it. At least check it if you are not going to replace it. The wardrobes smell like urine and the blackout curtains don’t even have the netting so you can see in unless you want to get changed and go about in the dark. There are so many other things I could complain about but those are my top three. I think I’m going to report them to Failte Ireland and have their star rating reviewed as they are ripping people off given the price. I have spoken to other guests and they have their own issues and have all paid extortion prices for what this is. Don’t bring your kids here. It’s best for boozey weekends. If you book adults and children b&b you have to pay 10e each day per child for kids club. In other hotels not only are kids club free but they stay free. I tried to upgrade to a family package after I had the room booked b&b and they wouldn’t and said it was sold out. The swimming pool changing rooms need a good scrub. Even the front of the lockers are manky all it takes is a wipe of a cloth and the floors are disgusting bring pool shoes if you have booked already. I could go on and on. The wait, bar and kids club staff are the only positives. We still had a great holiday and my 5 year old is none the wiser but what they are charging is robbery and people should know not to waste their money!

Was there for a friends wedding. Parking needs to be better signposted. Seating needs to improve. I was there for a wedding. I observed 2 persons who had mobility needs and there was no appropriate seating for them. A lot of room where more chairs and seating could have been made. toilets very clean and well maintained. staff very friendly and helpful. Wedding music: too loud: and came on before meal was finished: that is not good

Excellent facilities, we especially loved the pool and the kids pool was perfect for our 18 month old. Every member of staff was super friendly and helpful. We extended our stay to an extra night as we were enjoying it so much!

The hotel was very quiet and peaceful

Didn’t like that it was only bar food. Breakfast on the last day of our stay was not up to a hotel standard anything you went to get was not there we spent 30 minutes waiting on fry eggs no coffee or tea in the flasks

Visited this hotel Sunday 19th July for food. My husband went to bar to get a drink first. There was a very rude young man serving - He said stand back ,there are people before you.. His name was Joe ( Red hair, beard and glasses) He would want to learn some manners. Our food order was taken by a lovely young lady call Ava (Hardiman) Very pleasant young lady. The food was good.

Swimming pool is big, there were some swimming classes for children which makes the place busier and noisier Hotel is nice Reception girl was nice too

Breakfast was bad, poor, not meeting the standards for a 4 starts hotel, we barely ate because there is no variety and the only fruit was in conserve The room is so hot, not air conditioner

Unfortunately due to the heatwave it was unbareable and we did not stay overnight in the hotel we actually had to go home, we were very uncomfortable

Temperature

Spacious rooms with facilities to match. Very friendly staff.

No air conditioning.

Location

Needs developing

Großes Hotel, sauberes Zimmer, sehr freundliches Personal

Kein heißes Wasser in der Dusche am Abend, Frühstück sehr umfangreich aber sehr irisch. Keine Klobürste.

Lovely quiet hotel. Amazing dinner menu. Good value & great choice food

Hot water ran out very quickly.. 3 of us sharing room & water was icy cold for 3rd person's shower..and no, we didn't have long showers.

We stayed here for one night as part of a motorcycle tour around Galway/Kerry. The hotel was in a convenient location with plenty of parking space (including an underground car park). The hotel (throughout) is spacious, clean and comfortable. The bedrooms have all necessary facilities and a large en-suite bathroom and have tea/coffee, tv, bottled water and comfortable beds. At night we heard no outside noise at all, so slept well. The food was very good and the staff were lovely and breakfast was included all at a reasonable price. So we certainly recommend a stay at the Shearwater.

Hotel was clean an comfortable with excellent food

a blond young male member of staff in the bar was extremely arrogant. Also breakfast was finished serving at 10, we got there at 9:40 and at 10 it was suggested to us that we finished eating in the bar even though we weren't looking for more food we were just finishing the food we had

Die Zimmer hatten keine Klimaanlage… und das Fenster konnte nur minimal geöffnet werden… es war sehr heiss, was die Schlafqualität nicht positiv beeinflusst hat.

I liked the facilities and the breakfast

There was a cost cutting emphasis on display, not to be expected in a 4 star hotel. Mattress and floor was stained, bathroom door mouldy at bottom.

Great big spacious hotel. Cold water fountains along each floor. Swimming pool is nicest one I,ve seen. Liftcin hotel takes you straight to car park so checkout is so easy. Definitely recommend to all.

No fridge in room, seem to be taken out.

Staff were lovely and friendly, we arrived for a dancing competition and were able to check into our room early.

Great gym

No air con or fans No fridges in rooms

Best

I've never actually stayed in the Shearwater (I live nearby) but I do pop in regularly for a coffee or for dinner. It has a beautiful open foyer with comfortable seating, and is a great place to spend an hour or two. It's also great for afternoon tea - the scones are some of the best you can have, with lashings of cream and jam. Food in the hotel is good, if not quite as good as some other places in Ballinasloe. The location is excellent - Ballinasloe is quite a small place, so it's only a few minutes' walk to the town centre, and about 5 minutes' drive to the motorway.

Had lovely lunch here but on return journey at seven o'clock refused to serve tea and sandwich. Not acceptable for four star hotel

Had dinner with the kids here this week and the food and the service were both wonderful. We were seated straight away despite it appearing busy. Paul brought menus for us, including the kids menus and took a drinks order promptly. I didn't get the name of the girl who took our food order, but a special mention as she was really excellent with the kids. Service was great and food was delicious. A warm welcome from manager, Des as he came to see how everything was going with our meal. I would recommend the Shearwater for anyone local wanting a nice meal out!

Great Spa.

Lovely staff keen to assist in any way they could. The hotel is bright and airy. There are separate seating options outside the bar if you prefer quiet intimate chat while having food and drinks.

A fixed and limited menu. We had dinner Saturday night. I felt there weren't many options available.

It’s handy

It needs to be done up

Lovely environment for meeting a friend. Lovely food, staff very helpful and friendly. We felt very relaxed and welcome.

Clean, quiet, and very helpful and pleasant staff

We had a stay here recently. It was Okey, nothing out of the ordinary. Your average hotel. We enjoyed it as a couples one night away without the kids. Biggest let down was the food. Starters chicken ceasar salad was nice. However Ordered steak sandwiches for mains and it was mixed strips of beef with onion and mushroom mush. Parts of the steaks were cold and you can tell it was pre made. Dessert was truly awful, it was a strawberry cheesecake and it didn't taste like strawberry cheesecake. It felt like it was one of those shop bought pre made cheesecakes that are low quality. Unfortunately ice-cream was poor quality too. Best part of this meal was the pepper sauce with chips. In saying that, once the dessert came out, there was no waiter around to see how everything was so the problem couldn't be rectified. Anyway that was the evening meal. Breakfast was actually lovely. Was all self catering. Produce in the hot buffet was warm and tasty. Truly enjoyed it. The swimming pool was Okey. It was a bit messy with some old broken sinky toys lieing around. However it didn't affect us. What did matter to us that the water station was not working. Also changing room facilities in ladies were quite wet and showers were dirty with used stuff (razor) around. Most of them had empty containers for shampoo. When approached staff at reception desk at the gym and enquired about shampoo, was told they don't have any more. So unfortunately had to walk back to the rooms to wash. Not once did we see any staff measuring cholerine levels or cleanliness while we were there. Anyhow, these things can be all improved on. Just needs time, resources, training and a good schedule and maintenance. On a good note there were 2 staff members that did stand out. One person was a waiter. Tall dark haired male. He had a little bit a laugh with us when delivered our ceasar salads and moretti beers. He seemed to be the only waiter delivering food. So he was nice. Also in the bar there was a lady with black mid length hair serving drinks. Her welcoming smile and politeness was nice. So overall our stay was Okey. It allowed us to get away for the night as a couple and just chill.

A big group of us stayed for the June long weekend, we had a great time as always. Our kids love the pool and the food is always fabulous. We didn't use the cinema on this visit but it's always a massive hit. Comfortable rooms that are spacious and the staff are always so friendly. Can't wait to return. Would highly recommend

Loved it would stay again hopefully more offeres

Didn’t like the toilet Im the bedroom there was shower and I prefer baths also it’s was a disabled bathroom so don’t like it also seem to be disabled beds in some of the rooms on the flower I was in with I never saw at cinames before

Absolutely everything was brilliant

I cant fault them in anything

Great spot to stay in Ballinasloe! The Shearwater has everything you need - parking, restaurant, gym, pool, friendly staff and Guinness! I will be back!

No fridge in our room.

Amazing hotel

No complaints

Everything

No complaints

The hotel has a lovely welcoming entrance, pool and spa facilities were fabulous, we used pool area quite a lot & the staff on all ocassions were super friendly and helpful👌Our room was nice, we were expecting it to be nicer, a bit out dated. Had all we needed & lovely to have tge choice of bath or shower. Breakfast was delicious on both mornings, floor staff & supervisor were very friendly & attentive👏 We attended a weddding & the professiolism from staff in the lobby & function room was exceptional, the food served was top standard, we had salmon & beef as mains, cooked to perfection 👏

The bar, it was cold and felt big & empty , there"s a nice lobby just off it which is more inviting.The management (man in blue suit) in need of some customer training, spoke to a number of people quiet abruptley over our 2nd day here. The bar staff were very friendly & very good at their jobs👏 There is a lovely garden sun room, which was closed! 1st weekend of suneshine! no suitable outdoor area available to guests. The outdoor area off the lobby hadn't been cleaned yet after the winter. There was green residue on chairs, tables & everywhere & this was the option guests were giving by the once again rude spoken bar supervisor/management on at that time. Guests would have liked to enjoy pphotos & the sunshine in a clean flowered patio area at this 4 star hotel. Very disapointing really, knowing there are hundreds attending & weather fabulous. .

Maybe some pancake options for the room service breakfast options.

Doors set to close at very fast speed, dangerous for our kids with hands on frames etc

Everything

NA