Unregistered User
(8/2/02 8:21 pm)

In the end, magical

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Recently back from two-week trip -- my second, but my first with my wife and two children. What can I say, 'twas grand. Even the weather held. I long now for the smell of Irish peat and, well, I can get plenty of creamy Guinness in Boston, but it's just not the same somehow.

Rough spot to start: Cottage (Pollock's Cottage) on the Beara Peninsula that we had rented (and prepaid) through Country House Tours in Dublin was filthy and unhabitable, with many amenities broken or fragile with age. (We've rented cottages abroad before, and honestly didn't have unduly high expectations.) Country House has been pretty defensive about it. We may only get one week refunded. I'm sending them a video anyway; they should be ashamed to have rated it "a soild three stars."

We quickly bailed, however, and instead found uniformly *excellent* Tourist-board-approved B&B lodgings all over, and ultimately saw much more of the country than we would have making day trips: West Cork's lovely sand beaches, bustling Dublin and Galway, the bluffs just east of Dunmore East, a chilling, mid-renovation Charleville Castle near Tullamore, the beautifully forbidding Aran Islands....

On to the photo albums!

A Collins still dreaming of green

Michele Erdvig
ezOP
Posts: 705
(8/4/02 12:48 am)

Re: In the end, magical

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Hi ClayColl,

Thank you for stopping by to post about your trip to Ireland. How dreadful that you got off to such a bad start with your self-catering cottage. You should contact Tourism Ireland with your complaint immediately. Don't just call, but send a letter documenting the problem (and a copy of your video): 345 Park Avenue, NYC 10154. They are in charge of the star rating system and should be informed.

Is Country House Tours owned by Tourism Resources? If they are listed on Tourism Ireland's site they may be able to put some pressure on them for a refund. Was it listed in the Self-Catering book put out by Tourism Ireland? Perhaps complaining to that publication might help. Another option is to let the company know that you will be posting your complaint on many different Ireland travel forums if you don't get a full refund. They may not want the bad publicity. Be persistent and don't let up on the pressure for a refund. Did you put it on a credit card? You might be able to dispute the charge. Contact your CC for details.

I'm glad the rest of your trip went well and you enjoyed it despite the rough start. I guess you turned the lemons into lemonade! Way to go.

Let us know how the refund comes along and if you need more places to post your complaint online, send me an e-mail and I will send you some resources.

Michele