"We stayed here recently and unfortunately came away very disappointed, particularly with how the hotel handled the severe weather during our stay.
To be fair, there were some positives. The room was very impressive for the price we paid, and we were pleasantly surprised by the quality and standard of the accommodation. The food was also really nice when it was available, although it could be quite cold. Some members of staff were welcoming, friendly and genuinely helpful, but unfortunately others were much less so.
The biggest problems came when the weather deteriorated badly.
At breakfast, despite breakfast supposedly running until 10am, by around 9:15am the food had completely run out. There was no hot food available, with only pastries, cakes and similar items being offered. My wife is six months pregnant and ended up having a single doughnut for breakfast. When we raised this with the manager, we were essentially told that there was nothing that could be done and that he would “go and have a coffee” in our position. This was particularly disappointing and not an appropriate response.
Things then became considerably more concerning. Water was coming through the roof of the hotel lift, and the lift took us to a flooded -1 level. The lifts were subsequently taken out of service, leaving us with a room on the seventh floor and my six-month-pregnant wife having to use the stairs.
The hotel then lost power and there was no drinking water available. When I asked reception for water, I was initially told I would have to pay €2 for it, before subsequently being told to get drinking water from the bathroom/toilet tap. Given the circumstances, and particularly my wife’s pregnancy, we found this completely unacceptable.
We were then told that the kitchen was unusable and there was no idea when it would reopen. We were eventually sent to another hotel for lunch, around a 26-minute walk away. Although a taxi was eventually arranged to get us there, we were then told that transport would be provided back to our hotel. It wasn’t. As a result, my pregnant wife had to walk more than a mile back, along a muddy and slippery road.
To be clear, we are not blaming the hotel for the weather. Torrential rain and severe weather are obviously outside their control. What we found unacceptable was the apparent lack of contingency planning and the way the situation was handled. There seemed to be very little preparation for what guests should do when the kitchen, lifts, electricity and other facilities were affected.
Overall, we feel that a significant part of our holiday was ruined. This was especially stressful given that my wife is six months pregnant, and we felt that some of the decisions made by the hotel showed very little consideration for our circumstances.
It’s a real shame because, under normal circumstances, we would have had a lot of positives to say about the hotel. The room was excellent for the price, the food was genuinely very nice, and some staff were fantastic. Unfortunately, the handling of the severe weather situation overshadowed those positives.
We would recommend the hotel improve its contingency planning for severe weather, communication with guests and, most importantly, how it supports guests when essential facilities become unavailable."