Home holiday was a bad trip
My brother was already booked into a hotel in the Baltimore area but I considered exorbitant the price they quoted me E550 for two adults and three children under-12 for two nights.
We then considered staying in a guesthouse. My brother visited one nearby to check availability and prices on my behalf.
He was told they had two rooms available. On hearing we had three children they told him they would decline the booking as it wasn't worth the trouble. I consider this to be discrimination on family status grounds.
What a welcome to West Cork.
In view of this we decided to head for Cork city where we were made welcome. We went from there to the Castletownbere region where we had a hotel reservation. We obtained the name of this hotel from the local tourist office.
We arrived at 6.30pm, tired after such a journey. We were shown into a room by a friendly girl who obtained a camp bed for us as the room had just a double and single bed.
The lobby/reception area was impressive enough. A plaque showed it was registered with Fáilte Ireland.
However, once we progressed from the lobby, things got decidedly worse. We were brought to our room through a long, dingy corridor. The corridor and room smelt of must and damp. The room was painted dark blue with the paint chipping off. It had a sliding door into what was supposed to be a bathroom. The smell there was even worse, with no extractor fan or window. The bath had a hole in the side panel and the tiles around the toilet were two inches off. The tiles were dirty and grubby. It was so bad, we wouldn't even have a shower in it.
The room had a TV taped up to the same cable as an electric radiator. Surely a fire hazard.
We had to leave the window open all night such was the smell. There was no light in the corridor when we were going to bed and we were unable to find a light switch. We were charged E130 for this room.
There is a big outcry about tourist numbers dropping every year. Is it any wonder when this is the standard tourist experience. What really surprises me is that the hotel is registered with Fáilte Ireland. How could their inspectors think that this accommodation is acceptable?
What protection is there for travellers such as myself? At 6.30pm on a Saturday evening in August I hadn't much chance of finding alternative accommodation. It's unfortunate that such unacceptable standards bring down the whole tourism industry.
It is so unfair on those who run a good business with high standards.
We were very glad to leave the following morning and head for Portmagee. There we stayed in a beautiful, clean and well furnished room with a big bathroom, colouring books and crayons provided for the children and a fabulous breakfast the next morning with varied menu apart from the regular Irish. All for E110.
Gráinne Travers
Ballyhoneen
Cloghane
Co Kerry
