For the first five years my experience of hotels in Belfast had not been good. Since 2014 I have stayed at the Ramada Encore at least once per year and I was reasonably happy.

In 2016 I paid Euro 119 for two nights [I paid 2 Euro less in 2015] and in 2017 I paid Euro 161.36 for exactly the same room about two weeks before Brexit. This was at the top end of what I was willing to pay for a hotel such as this.

When I tried to book the Ramada for three nights in May 2018 the asking price was Euro 171 per night without the option of free cancellation] and this came as a shock considering that Sterling has dropped in value by at least 10% over the last twelve months.

For many years I have complained about the cost and quality of Hotel accommodation in Belfast and at one stage I was beginning to believe that I was the only person who had an issue. Recently there have been a number of reports which indicate that "Northern Ireland is currently not a sufficiently compelling or motivating destination for some visitors from the Republic even before Brexit is factored into the equation". It is also suggested that visitors from the ROI consider restaurants and hotels to be too expensive and substandard compared to other destinations and this has been my experience.

Before I started visiting on a regular basis I had expected the restaurants in Belfast to be top class but I now know that they are old-fashioned and over priced but I should say that I have only tried restaurants in or near the city centre.