Let’s by stating this is not a bashing.
The owner Maeve is a delight to deal with, however the same cannot be said for her agent Trip Advisor who were the people we dealt with for payment of the cottage.
Despite paying the deposit and then final amount just 2 weeks before leaving Australia , Trip Advisor advised is payment had not gone through and that we had to make the payment again, we refused and provided bank proof full payment had been made,
Nope, not good enough, Trip Advisor refused to believe us and demanded full payment again, we refused and demanded our deposit back and we will stop the full payment with our bank, finally a French lady from Trip Advisor actually rang us and eventually after a lengthy heated argument she said , “ I will call you back in half an hour to see what has gone wrong” .
Credit to the young lady, she called back and admitted they had made a mistake their end and that indeed full payment was received.
The owners of the cottage should address their choice of agent.
Ok, besides that.
As international guests we do not have full knowledge of directions on Irish roosts so when asked how to get to the cottage pretty much in the middle of nowhere with no street name or house number the directions given “ Take M8 to Athenry then M6 to Athlone then N55 to Ballymahon” meant very little to us coming from Shannon airport.
Getting to Ballymahon was not the hard part, directions from Ballymahon to the cottage would have been nice, you know, travel 2 kms out of Ballymahon on N55 heading towards Carrickboy and turn left at 4 way intersection, go over bridge for about 1 km and cottage on RHS with steel gate.
We ended up google earthing the cottage and then street viewed it in relation to Ballymahon.
Yes!!!! We found it and arrived safe.
The cottage viewed from outside and in are just as they are in the description online.
There are a number of minor maintenance issues that do need attention, to which Maeve has been made aware of and said she will address.
We do agree with another reviewer that perhaps extra towels and linen would be a nice touch as washing sheets and towels while on holidays sucks. We were lucky the weather was favourable.
Bringing extra towels in a already weight conscious suitcase was not an option for us.
Tv reception was poor to nil most days and we gave up and never used the tv room at all. But, in all fairness this was disclosed in the literature in the cottage.
Wi Fi, yes! and works very well and very well priced.
Wood for the heater was made available and do the right thing and leave some cash for what you use.
Central heating is an option at a good price but after our first night we found it far to hot for our liking, but nice to know it is there.
As mentioned earlier, Maeve is a delight to deal with and communicates well and often.
A few things like extra utensils in the kitchen, like tongs, potholders and a saucepan that fits the steamer pots would be nice.
Not sure of laws in Ireland but we were surprised no fire extinguishers or fire blanket was installed in rental accommodation.
A few issues with plumbing ( but again addressed by Maeve).
Overall this is a beautiful out of the way cottage with some great rural views from sunroom and master bedroom.
Would we stay here again ?
YES.
Would we deal with the agents to book it again.
HELL NO.