The friendliness and efficiency of the staff we met here made our stay. Efficient, attentive and had a bit of banter so good fun too. Facilities basic (in our room) but clean, comfortable and well presented.

We were supposed to stay at this hotel in June 2021 but due to unforeseen circumstances we were unable to, and ended up having to cancel outside the seven day cancellation period. I found Christina the manager very understanding and professional to deal with and because of the lovely customer service we received we are very much looking forward to staying at this hotel in the near future.

I said I'd include this as I notice a few people complaining that their booking has been cancelled. We are just back from a staycation around Ireland, we first spent 3 days in Co. Mayo, on Wednesday 23rd June we left Mayo and had booked to stay overnight in the Bunratty Castle Hotel, really to break the journey as we were travelling down to Killarney.

We arrived at the Hotel at 2.30pm parked our car outside and just checked at reception that it was ok to leave our car there. The Reception staff seemed very friendly and helpful. We went for a walk around Bunratty Castle and Folk Park while we waited for our room to be ready. when we left the folk park to return to the hotel we noticed the fire, apparently there had been a fire at the back of the Kitchen area.

There were a few fire engines there putting out the fire and there was a lot of smoke, the fire men got the fire under control very quickly. While this was going on a member of staff from the hotel came out to the cordoned off area and spoke to a number of the hotel guests, she suggested we have a drink or walk around Bunratty while they waited to get confirmation from the Fire Men etc regarding whether the hotel would reopen or not. She said she would return to the cordoned off area to keep us updated.

About 2 hours later I noticed that some cars seemed to be moving around inside the cordoned off area, there must have been another entrance opened. I walked inside the cordoned area and discovered that there were some staff at the entrance to the hotel and they were speaking to people that were arriving to check in. It was extremely unorganized, the 3 girls had paper lists with some names on them and had a mobile phone between them, there didnt seem to be any proper method of contacting guests, they were just waiting for them to arrive.

At this stage I was informed that an alternative booking had been made for me in a hotel in Shannon (about 10 minutes drive away). I decided to decline this offer as we had decided to continue on to Killarney instead, when we explained about the fire to our Hotel in Killarney they managed to find a room for us at a very good rate.

I know I'm probably being unfair complaining, and at the time I was really understanding and friendly to the staff, I fully understand the pressure they were under at that time, but almost a week has passed now and we have not received any communication from the Hotel, we lost a day of our holiday, were quite stressed for a time that our car could have damaged and I feel at the very least they should have sent an email apologising for the inconvenience.

I think at the time there was an obvious lack of management of staff in terms of how they were dealing with guests. As I said I fully understand this was a very traumatic experience for everyone, but a quick email apologising would not have gone astray, maybe it might arrive yet :)