Dome Hotel & Spa

A beautiful building with tons of character from the many original features. Comfortable beds with lovely toiletries in the bath/shower room. So why only 3 stars? Our room, a Junior Suite (room 203) was spacious and well equipped, however the air conditioning didn’t work so it was quite humid and stuffy. No problem we thought, we’ll open a window. And that’s when the problems started. All we could hear was an incredibly loud whining noise coming from the air conditioning condensers of other rooms! 😱 This wasn’t just heard occasionally, but constantly. We mentioned it to reception shortly after checking in and were told the air conditioning didn’t work in our room because they were switching over to summer mode. And the noise was apparently known about and world be sorted ‘soon’, just they were unsure how soon would be… Sadly, over the first 3 nights of our stay we mentioned the noise which was severely impacting our sleep to various hotel staff. We asked them to come up to listen, and they accepted it was noisy and they’d get maintenance to sort it first thing in the morning. That didn’t happen 😩 During those first 3 days we asked whether there were any rooms available for the rest of our stay and told there wasn’t. Only checking their website, there was availability… On Wednesday night returning to the hotel around midnight after a long day and dinner out, we were told the manager had been spoken to and they’d like to offer us an upgrade for the rest of our stay - which was quiet and had working a/c. A nice gesture, but took far too long to sort out. We were really disappointed and unimpressed with how the hotel handled things. It would also have been helpful if they had contacted us during the day/evening to advise that they were able to offer a different room, as this would have meant we could make the switch earlier in the evening rather than moving things from one room to another at just after midnight. Having read other reviews mentioning exactly the same problem, it seems this is an issue the hotel are choosing not to do something about. As it gets warmer over the summer, it’s going to get warmer and stuffier without air conditioning working. Having the window open with the loud droning of other guest rooms air conditioning isn’t going to be a practical option. If you’re in room 203, do check to see if the air conditioning is working. If it isn’t, you’re in for a poor night’s sleep. Finally, breakfast. It’s mentioned in a lot of reviews as being really good. And it is, if you go down early. If you’re down after 9.15am don’t expect much left from the continental breakfast buffet. Despite breakfast being offered until 10.30am, it didn’t seem to get replenished, other than a few extra baby tomatoes and cucumber slice being put out. Service was polite but coffees were slow to come out, and not particularly hot when they did. The ‘menu’ items were very nice though, we particularly enjoyed the crepes. It would be great to be offered another coffee, or orange juice (we always had to ask). In summary, if you get a quiet room and get up early, Hotel Dome is in a great location for exploring Riga and beyond (with an excellent craft beer bar less than a minute’s walk away). Just hope you get a quiet room…

We only ate in the restaurant but it was superb. The tasting menu was beautifully balanced and the experience was adapted for this demanding (not really but…) pescatarian alcohol free guest. The vegetarian beetroot alternative to the foie gras/caviar/gold leaf dish was quite one of the most beautiful plates of food I’ve ever seen. The service was charming and smooth. One little thing, just as we were leaving the lights were lowered to a less bright setting, it was much nicer like that. Thankyou for a lovely evening.

In a great location in Old Town! hotel was very nice and clean, sauna for use on the top floor was nice. Very friendly staff. Only complaint was the bathroom - the way it was laid out was not ideal. The door to the shower was an issue - got stuck a couple of times and the way things were placed made it less functional. Rooms were clean and quiet. Breakfast was good. Would stay again!