Three couples stayed in this house for eight nights while site seeing Southern Ireland. We chose it for its location, but primarily for its reviews on TripAdvisor, which were quite positive. Our experience was not as positive as apparently others have been.
POSITIVES Excellent location less than 10 minutes from Adare. Large house with lots of room and rooms, way more rooms than we required. (Who needs a formal dining room in addition to a 10 person dining table in the large kitchen?) Lots of parking for multiple vehicles. Angela left milk, eggs, bacon, sausage, butter and bread for us when we arrived. 5 Queen sized beds.
NEGATIVES HEAT—Ad for house should read “UNHEATED HOUSE for 10” If you want heat, you will need to pay quite a bit for it, particularly if it has been cold and the house has been empty. We arrived at a 50 degree F house and had to spend 24 hours and lots of heating oil getting it to a livable temperature of 70 degrees F. Everything in the house was 50 degrees, walls, floors, ceilings, furniture, furnishings and all of it we had to pay to get to a livable temperature.
RESPONSIVENESS—On day 1 when we arrived, we turned on the heat and discovered that at least one of the heat registers did not work, in a bathroom. 50 degree bathrooms are not real popular. On day 2 in the AM we called the owner and reported the problem. We heard nothing. On the afternoon of day 2 we called again. We heard nothing. On the evening of day two, I sent an email message through TripAdvisor and heard back that they had called at the house and the heat was working fine in the bedroom and we should not spend time adjusting it. The heat was not working and so after calling several times to both of the owner’s cell phone with no answer; I sent another message on Day 3 stating such. Received a reply back that the heat was working fine in the bathroom in question. Tried calling again, with no success, sent message it is still not working. Day 4, I receive a message that a plumber came out and fixed the register and that it was now working. Then she chastised me for our focus on part of the heat not working when the rest of the heat worked fine. Here is her message to me:
I hope this issue is resolved. It is unfortunate one small radiator can cause such annoyance when 20 odd heaters work perfectly.
So, to recap: After four days of many unanswered or ignored calls, multiple emails, being told three times that the heat was working fine when it wasn’t and then being chastised for complaining about the heat not working, it was resolved. And at NO time did we hear, they were sorry the heat did not work, or they were sorry they told us it worked three times when it didn’t, or they were sorry that it took multiple calls and emails and four days to get it fixed. No, we heard we should not have been focused on it not working.
After this example of their responsiveness, whenever we came across another problem, we just dealt with it. There were others, for sure. We did not come to Ireland to spend hours arguing over stuff like this.
CLEANLINESS—Things break or don’t work. It happens. But when you rent a place it should be clean. This one was not. On virtually every surface in the house there was a layer of dust. In addition, there were numerous stains on tables that could be cleaned with a cloth. The refrigerator and freezer in the kitchen had multiple places on shelves and drawers where there was dried food left from previous tenants. The dishes, glasses, and cookware were so dirty with caked on food and film, we had to hand wash everything before we could use them. Attached is a picture of what all the glasses looked like when we arrived and after we washed them. On the left is the owner’s idea of clean, on the right is ours.
INTERNET—The house is advertised as having internet, and it does, as long as you are on the lower floor. On the upper floor where the bedrooms are, internet is non-existent. That did not improve over the 8 days.
BEDROOMS/BATHROOMS—This house has 5 bedrooms, each with a queen bed and a thin mattress, four on the upper floor and one on the lower floor. And it has 3 bathrooms, plus a small utility bathroom off the laundry room with a toilet and sink. For the three couples of us, that was okay, we each had a bathroom. However, only 2 of the bedrooms are ensuite. The other 3 bedrooms share one bathroom that is on the upper floor. If you are more than three couples or if you wish to have a bathroom on the same floor as your bedroom or if you don’t wish to share a bathroom with 5 others, this house could be a problem.
DAMAGES—In my opinion, damages should be assessed when the tenant misuses or abuses something in the house, not when the item is defective to begin with. This owner obviously disagrees. She submitted a claim for several items in addition to all the heating oil we had to use to make the house livable. We picked up a cheap bedroom lamp by the stem and the base fell off, smashing against the floor. She charged us $35 for a $15 lamp. And how is it our fault the lamp base was not attached properly? We pulled a blind in our bedroom to the bottom of the window, not past the window sill, and she wants $40 to repair the blind. Isn’t the reason you have a blind is to pull it down to block out the sun and should it not be okay if it is pulled only to the window sill? Apparently, not to this owner. Also, we were charged $6 each for two cheap wine glasses we broke while washing them by hand because they were too dirty to use. So, BEWARE.
All bookings are direct with the owner 