I stayed with my family for a 5 night break. The surroundings are lovely and pleasant and the old hotel, where we stayed was very nice indeed, the food and drink we had was nice, though nothing to write home about. I think the management of the hotel need to wake up, it's alright having a relaxed atmosphere but when it comes to service it could not have slower. Especially in the tiny sticky carpeted bar of the old hotel (by the way the carpet smells of pee)There were never enough bar staff and those who were there appeared to be on a work to rule and not able to cope with more than one order at a time, with the exception of one dark haired girl. It was virtually impossible to get anyone to take the bill from you for payment and reception was always understaffed resulting in queues of frustrated customers either checking in or out, this staffing issue is ultimately the responsibility of management and should be addressed immediately. I couldn't count the number of customers who complained about the lack of staff and level of service. That aside the family room in which I stayed was very nice and regularly cleaned, however the place seemed to be crawling with children who were running around corriders and stairways till all hours of the morning.

My partner booked us a weekend stay at the Breaffy House resort using their online booking system. There are two hotels in the resort and each has its own web page. We booked through the web page for the old Breaffy House Hotel but when we arrived we found that we were booked into the International Sports Hotel. We didn’t mind, but the couple at the reception in front of us had done exactly the same and were less than happy. We decided to make the most of it and, as there was no information provided on the hotel facilities in the room, decided to go walk about and find out what was there. There are some nice pathways through the grounds, a children’s playground, some eateries, bars (very small in the old hotel), a spa and fitness facilities – the latter does not have classes at the weekend, nor does it have adult-only swim times at the weekend. Although it is called a sports hotel, the extra sports facilities are not yet operational (July 2008) and are geared more to team sports than to weekend visitors. My impression is that the hotel is better suited to sports teams, families with young children and wedding guests than it is to holidaying couples. But we were making a go of it and had a two-night plus dinner package (at 340 Euro) so duly turned up at the restaurant – for this we were also booked into the Sports Hotel restaurant (actually a Bistro). I was looking forward to it as my partner had been able to specify that I could not eat gluten on the website when he was booking. I think this gave me false expectations! Because we were there on a weekend package we were given a ‘Supervalue’ Menu to choose from, which had three choices for each of three courses. All of the starters came with bread – so I told two different waiters that I would need gluten-free bread and neither of them could cope with the concept of food allergies. Although the waiting staff did not have a good level of English and there was a language barrier, it was clear that they had no training regarding food allergies, despite the fact that the website suggests that allergies can be catered for. Between us we had a very small portion of vegetable soup with brown bread, a ceasar salad made with dried parmesan powder from a shaker container (we eventually persuaded the staff to leave out the croutons to avoid the gluten problem), a small bowl of pasta with a tomato sauce, and a very nice piece of salmon that was coated in a sauce that, from my reaction to it, clearly contained a tonne of wheat. By the way, the small soup and bowl of pasta were for my 6’ 3” tall partner. We didn’t bother with the sad selection of desserts. The total value of what we ate was 40 Euro. I would describe the style of the food somewhere between ‘small portions of middling country pub food’ and ‘mid 1980s posh canteen food’. At this point, despite my reaction to the food, I was still amused at the mistaken booking and the hyped eatery that was pretty dire. I was very happy with the room that was very clean with a comfortable bed and nice en-suite. There was a door that connected to an adjacent bedroom that was locked for obvious reasons. I was a lot less happy by the early hours of the morning after an extended period of listening to the snoring of the occupant in the next room – the adjoining door (and perhaps also the adjoining walls) allow you to hear all the business of your nearest neighbours. After a while I went and requested a room change, was told by the night porter that the hotel was fully booked, that someone would be sent to ask my neighbour to keep the noise down (I did point out that people are not able to control the volume at which they snore) and that my room would be phoned in five minutes or so to check that everything was alright. I felt bad for the fuss I caused and waited in the corridor for whoever was coming to resolve the situation. No-one came and the room was not telephoned – but the corridor was a lot more quiet (though the snoring was still audible) and I tried sleeping there for a while – not that comfy though. An hour later I went back into my room, by which time my partner was also fully awake and we decided enough was enough and we should leave. When we had checked out and loaded the car, a manager offered us tea and coffee and a room change! We only stayed one of the two nights and had no breakfasts. We don’t know whether or not another room would have been any more restful than the first, but the senior management were very efficient and charged us 150 Euro instead of the full weekend rate. Given the 40 Euro of food, this works out at 110 Euro for a double room only for one night. It was a bit more expensive than Jurys or Bewleys in Dublin and I would rate them the same – while these hotels don’t have extra sports facilities and nice walks, they have very high profile expensive locations, better food and much better sound-proofing. In summary: beware the online booking system, don’t eat there if you have any special dietary requirements, take earplugs, and don’t think that a ‘special package’ means good value.

I had a very pleasant stay with my partner at this pleasantly hosted hotel. The staff are friendly, the food was lovely. But most off all I really enjoyed the artwork in the swimming pool. It was something different that I hadn't seen before. I also loved the sabia med room. I thought the artwork again was exquisite. It let your mind go along with the mood of the music and the heat in the room. It really made you feel like you were lying in an oasis in the desert.