Okay, so I'm a little late in posting this...okay, so I'm more than a little late. The Great Southern was nice, but I would not call it grand! However, the service was excellent. It is in a convenient location, and you can easily walk to the town center. The first time we were in Killarney, we stayed at the Hotel Europe with a lake view room (more the size of an apartment). It had the view! The Great Southern has the location. Killarney is charming, but has become rather congested. A nice stay at a nice hotel with good food and superior service. One note...probably will not happen for another 50 years...but it was hot in Ireland in July of 2006...and no air conditioning...but we thought that was probably typical.

My girlfriend and I booked in for one night. 1st room had a double and a single bed. Little bit cramped but nice. However when she tried to run a bath the water that came out was a lovely shade of brown! I asked for a room change and this was done promptly. Our new room was much bigger and had a great bathroom.
We were at a dinner dance thing which was excellent from food and service POV. I've eaten in their Peppers restaurant in the past and it was class!
Luckily they were able to sort out our initial prob, otherwise this would've been a one star review!

This had a reputation of being a little tired but we found none of that. The food was top class, the service unbelieveably good and the athmosphere superb. The pool is good & clean and was awarded a blue flag (independent quality assessment) for 2006/07...the place was largely done up 2 yrs ago and is all the better for it.
The hotel is centrally located and is definetly recommended for a try-out by this Irish reviewer - it has set the benchmark in terms of defining "excellent service"...

My partner and I booked a two night stay in The Great Southern Hotel Killarney on the premise that the 4 star well rated hotel would be a luxurious break away. We were sorely disappointed. The room overlooked a slanting roof, unfortunately the slant was towards the window therefore eliminating any views that potentially were available. The room was over heated but because the room was accessible from the roof we were uncomfortable leaving the window open. The second night we chose to eat in their award winning restuarant Peppers. To cut a long story short, the service was appalling, the food was cold and undercooked and the entire menu overpriced. We were so disappointed at that stage that we debated driving home to Cork rather than spend another night there. However bad weather prevented us from doing that but it pretty much summed up the entire experience. I would definately not recommend this hotel to anyone, despite the old school grandeur it supposedly supplies!