Firstly, I love this hotel in terms of location and the old house and grounds are just gorgeous, especially in late autumn as the colours of the trees are beautiful.

But this is the second time I have stayed here where I feel compelled to write a review about the service. This is probably my last visit.

Pretty much all of the issues are down to staff training. They haven’t hired bad people. Almost everyone was polite and had good intentions but the staff are overstretched and it is clear that there is zero management cover to check that things are running properly.

Ok, here’s the list of things that are unnecessarily bad. You just expect better from a hotel like this....

1) Freezing swimming pool. We complained in the reception at the pool. They said they don’t “take” complaints at the spa reception and sent us to the main reception to complain. Joke. Day 2....pool still freezing.

2) Jacuzzi out of order. 2 days in a row with no sign of anyone worried about that.

3) Dinner in the restaurant. We were asked if we wanted still or sparkling water in an empty restaurant by 3 separate waitresses. Nobody asked us if we wanted anything else, like a GnT for example. Basic training issue.

4) Breakfast - pre made granola with fruit. Soggy as hell. Hands up who likes soggy granola? Otherwise the breakfast was pretty good but again the staff seemed overstretched.

5) Lounge staff - you could turn into a skeletal remains before they would ask you if you needed anything. They are wandering around picking up glasses but it seems that their biggest fear would be to ask a customer if they were ok.This could result in the customer wanting something which would be an inconvenience. Again, it’s what happens when you let young staff go unsupervised. I don’t blame the staff. It is clearly a management issue.

Recommendation:

Have a duty manager patrolling the bars and lounges and a restaurant manager who is actually running the team in the restaurant. The food in general was good. No complaints there. The hotel has also been renovated in the modern wing and it’s a pretty good job.

This hotel deserves better on the service front. The history and grandeur of the place should not be let down by sloppiness.

We booked for a Halloween break. The hotel is beautiful, this was our 2nd visit. The new rooms look fantastic. However a few issues..we arrived arround 3pm and our Autistic son was delighted to hear pumpkin carving, cup cake decorating and movies had started and would be on until 6..we quickly left our bags in the beautiful room..went to find pumpkin carving at 3.30, the room was empty..pumpkins and cupcakes had finished he was very sad. We went to the pool and it was nice but no robes or slippers provided as would have been handy to return to the room to relax. The next day we passed the houskeeping lady leaving our room at 10.30am..we returned at 4.45 and the room had not been cleaned. Id accidently forgot to take the do not disturb sign off, my fault , so on our way to reception I met housekeeping an apologised for leaving the card on the door and asked could she tidy up plz. We dropped by reception to explain and then had to pay 11euro for two hot choc. I returned to the room at 5.40..still not made up with a note slipped under the door to say house keeping had gone home, I went back to reception..we had dinner booked in Kildare so decided to just go on..we got stuck in traffic and missed our reservation..ended up back in the room and just had to order pizza..the menu selection for room service or the restaurant was very overly priced. Yes its a stunning hotel, we rarely get weekends away and this was for our anniversary..just a bit let down at the service..not sure if we would return.I went to see some of the rooms advertised on the web site..both were locked..the girl did offer to get a key but I declined.