Bunratty Castle Hotel, BW Signature Collection — Hotel in County Clare

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...

Our rooms were booked improperly, so we had to change rooms a few times to finally get the bed selections right. Thankfully they were not completely booked, but they had booked a wedding party which played loud music with an obnoxious amplified DJs voice long past the time that I wanted to go to bed and thought it reasonable for them to quiet it down. It did not help that our bedroom window was broken and let all of the sound in unhindered. The staff was not very inclined to be helpful, and slightly rude as I tried to explain our sleeping arrangements problems with the rooms, as I apparently spoke in the Martian to her, for she certainly did not understand the English that I thought I was speaking.

This facility also does not enforce their handicap parking, meaning that all of the handicap parking was consumed by vehicles that had no placards, forcing our party that did include a handicapped person to park far away down the lot. I noticed that they did not have a very handicap assessable facility.

Also, the general feel of the place was somewhat run down, though I could see that it had once been classy. The water pressure in the shower was terrible. If you're going to stay here, swing by the hardware store for a pair of pliers and pics to remove the restrictor valve from the shower heads. Otherwise you'll be leaving with shampoo stuck in your hair. Never before have I had to was my naughty bits in the sink!

The only thing worse than the accommodations was the breakfast. Absolute rubbish! Plan on going to McDonalds in Shannon, the food is twice the quality.

On the upside, they had a pool and hot tub, but by the time we got done playing musical rooms there was no time to enjoy them. Overall, a poor experience, and I cannot in good faith recommend...

Giving this hotel 1 star as there is no option for 0 stars!!! Shocked and utterly appalled by the experience we had at your hotel. From the moment we arrived it was nothing but unpleasant. When we went to check in at 5pm we were told that our room was not ready – even though the booking confirmation advised that it would be ready from 3pm. This was only the start of the problems. When we were eventually allowed to check-in once we got to the room there was still someone hoovering the room and made no apology to us and was very rude about the whole thing. The lock in the door was faulty – needed to be banged hard to close, but we were going to get over that. We went for dinner in the restaurant and the reception hadn’t advised them that we were booked in which made it very awkward for everyone as we were left in limbo. The waitress was also very rude to us. There was a very 'clinical' and cold atmosphere in the restaurant, not a pleasant experience at all. Two of the three main courses were cold and had to be sent back. We had had enough at this stage so I requested to speak to a manager. She made a note of the faults and asked if we wished to change rooms. Would you actually believe that the second room was worse than the first, you couldn’t make it up! The toilet in the second room wouldn’t flush and there were blood stains on the side of the bed. We were utterly sickened. At this stage we were three hours into our holiday and to say we were at boiling point would be an understatement. We decided we had enough and requested a refund as we weren’t going to put up with anymore. We didn’t end up actually staying in the hotel that night as we dread to think what else could go wrong. Avoid,...