HOTEL IN DUBLIN Ireland searched internet, every hotel I checked had 5-15 "Never Again" comments

I have never been to Dublin, or anywhere else in Ireland. You are booking quite late in an area with a relatively short tourist season, so it may well be the case that the best-value, best-managed places have no vacancies during the time you want to stay there. This is more likely, the more nights you're looking for.

That doesn't mean the remaining hotels are bad. People are more likely to post negative than positive reviews, and if they present an unpleasant, negative, aggressive attitude when they complain, they may get a less-than-helpful response.

What is hotels.com's policy regarding reviews? Can anyone post a review, including those who may never have actually stayed at the property? If that's the case, some of those reviews may well be fakes. You might also look at booking.com, which allows only those who have stayed at a hotel to review it.

I always stay at Buswells Hotel while in Dublin, I read about it in the Rick Steves guide book years ago, great location, staff are excellent and food was delicious. Your probably going to have to take what ever is available this late with only 2 weeks to go, but I would try and get a place within easy walking distance to Trinity College and Temple Bar. Hope you find a good hotel!

Go to wwwbooking.com
Enter your dates and see what comes up. Just using a random stretch of dates from end of June - July3, some hotels with "awesome" to "excellent" ratings are showing. Now, there might be a price for "awesome" or "excellent" but if that's what you're looking for.... I use that site almost exclusively for searching our accommodations.

No hotel is going to get perfect ratings each and every time: ultra-picky tourists can always find something to complain about! Also some American tourists who are unused to smaller European hotel rooms and some of their common quirks.

I was in Dublin end of May and stayed 2 nights at central Camden Hotel. Hopefully u can get a reservation as it is a very popular city in summer. I would rate it was a business persons hotel and well maintained.

I think you are putting too much faith in reviews that can be posted by any idiot on the internet. I have stayed at many hotels with plenty of bad reviews and had a wonderful stay. I actually like to read the poor reviews and see what people complain about (the chairs in the room did not match! 0 out of 10), it is better though to look for trends.

Worth noting that many of the things you mention from the bad reviews(cleanliness, apathy, attitude) are very subjective things, what is fine for me is likely not fine for someone who wants to eat off the floor and have staff fawn over them and kiss their....well you get the drift. I give these comments little value unless the majority of reviews make the same comment. As for "extreme overbooking", I am not sure what that would be. If you show up and they have your room, why would you be offended if they happened to fill all their other rooms? Was someone forced to share a room? I don't get it. If they are full or "overbooked" then I guess that can be a positive indicator, a popular place.

In the end, do not set artificial minimum rating expectations on a single site, look at several sites and get a sense of those that consistently in the upper half. Do consider the style of hotel you like (fancy, homey, large business class, small places, etc.), I consider price, I accept that I am only in my room to basically sleep, so I do not need amenities or a fancy lobby, and lastly location will usually trump most of the criteria.

Every hotel in the planet has at least one person who hates it. You’re not going to find the perfect hotel, but you can find a “good enough” hotel. Decide what your number one pet peeve is and then avoid those hotels that mention it. For me the big deal breaker is a noisy hotel. So if the five or 10 people who write a negative review were only talking about lazy front desk staff then I am OK with it, but if the five or 10 people consistently mention loud music or noise from a bar nearby, then forget it.

I parse negative reviews and there are only three things that I use to cross a place off my list: bedbugs, personal safety issues, theft. Other stuff I take with a grain of salt.

Thank you everyone who answered my call. What a nice community and very helpful advice.
I found my hotel. Can you believe that after searching and finding negative comments on over 20 hotels
I finally found a hotel in Dublin, nice area (I believe) absolutely not one negative comment (Too good to be true... ????).
So I booked it! I am not sure I should post their name here but anyone emailing me will receive the name of this hotel
with no guarantees from me. After I visit on July first I will mention the name and my comments.
Thanks everyone!!!

Why not tell us the name of the hotel?! Will help anyone looking for similar.

I agree that any idiot can post a negative review (and they don't outnumber the happy campers, they just tend to want to tell everybody so it seems like there are more of them).

I don't use websites--they are too impersonal. I use the sleeping recommendations in RS' travel guides. I've never (in 19 years of travel) had a bad experience in one of his recommendations. The downside, however, is that the places he recommends fill up fast and your trip is looming.

If you can't find anything else, contact Trinity College Dublin: https://www.tcd.ie/summeraccommodation/ . They rent out student housing (rooms and apartments) during the summer. The rooms are neat and clean, the rates are inexpensive, and they were lovely when I emailed them with lots of questions. You can also see the Book of Kells while you are there.

I have been to Dublin three times and stayed in three different hotels.

Best: The Davenport. Clean, good location.

Middle: Jurys Christchurch. Decent hotel, good location.

Worst: Buswells. So disgustingly filthy that the manager personally apologized.

Regarding the negative reviews on otherwise well regarded hotels, I look at when those negative reviews are from.

Negative reviews from 3 yrs ago on a property that has a years worth of all positive reviews makes those old reviews irrelevant, in my judgement.

I don't use websites--they are too impersonal. I use the sleeping
recommendations in RS' travel guides. I've never (in 19 years of
travel) had a bad experience in one of his recommendations.

Monty, we've NEVER used the RS guides for our hotels as we figure too many Rickniks are already using them and they are only a few out of hundreds of possibilities in the bigger cities. Booking.com reviews can only be posted by people who've actually stayed in the properties listed and include apartments as well. Maybe been lucky but we've never booked a 'dog' so far using their website, and it's no more "impersonal" than a guidebook reco.

Great Feedback. Interesting. Thanks everyone.
I booked 2 rooms in THE WILDER in Dublin. Not one bad review.
Now how do I take this off the air? So I don't bother you all.
Thank you everyone.

"Now how do I take this off the air? So I don't bother you all."

Don't take it "off the air" - it's helpful information for others. Just leave it, and it will drop lower in the post list as others put up newer threads. But it will remain searchable for those seeking information about Dublin hotels.

We’ve stayed at 8 RS recommended hotels. Three were fabulous, one was just ok and very expensive, three we did not like but nothing really bad, and one was absolutely horrible (rented 2 rooms, both were filthy with extensive mold throughout). I stopped using RS recommended hotels 11 yrs ago. I prefer Booking.com now.

When it comes to reviews I rely on Booking,com since the reviews are from people who have booked reservations and stayed at the locations. That being said, on the super negative reviews I remember the words of a colleague of mine, "Somme people just wouldn't be happy, even if you hung them with a new rope."

Irv... LoL!

I found my hotel. Can you believe that after searching and finding
negative comments on over 20 hotels I finally found a hotel in
Dublin, nice area (I believe) absolutely not one negative comment (Too
good to be true... ????).

I'm chuckling a little as I'm not sure what review site you were using but I am seeing a some mildly negative comments for your hotel on booking.com (which is rated "awesome" with a review score of 9.2). Most common ☹️ remarks? Small room sizes. Yep, that one is not infrequent in regards to many European city hotels.

But on the amusing end of that "new rope", someone was a bit put out that dressing gowns weren't automatically provided. Yep, it's always something, innit? 🙄.

I'm sure you'll be very happy with your choice; have a great time in Dublin!

I love this comment about The Wilder on Tripadvisor -"* Toilet bowl - smallest one I’ve ever seen"*

Plus the man who was cross because he had notified them that he left his toothbrush behind, and they had not replied to his email for two days!!

colbe, that is funny... a toothbrush??

Ah The Wilder, a fairly new place so should be up to scratch. I'm curious about the tiny toilets though!

Sorry I missed your dates, but for future reference:

I highly recommend staying at Trinity College. They clean up and rent out student accommodations during the summer. The campus is smack in the center of town and very pretty. It is quiet except for mid-day tour groups which get a little noisy. And we got a 2-bedroom apartment with kitchen for about half what we were paying for hotel rooms elsewhere in Europe. The rooms were clean, the beds were comfortable, and the kids working in the accommodations office were helpful and welcoming. Best place to stay, hands down.

Don't opt for the breakfast, however. Remember dorm food?