Really disappointing holiday in The Links, Lahinch, Co Clare - Ailish. Date of travel: Mar 2011
We booked a holiday with Dream Ireland in their Links Holiday Homes, Lahinch, Co Clare. This accommodation is seriously substandard - it is clear that not 1 cent has been put into these properties since they were built. They are also dirty. I have posted our complaint letter and response below. If you are a stag party and not too concerned about where you stay, this accommodation might suit you - otherwise I would avoid it! ------------------ Sent to Dream Ireland on 23/3/2011 -------------- Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing to complain about the holiday home we rented from Dream Ireland under the name X: No 27, The Links Holiday Village, Lahinch, Co Clare. We rented it as part of a bigger group who were staying in two other houses in this estate. This house is not in a fit state to be rented as a holiday home: it requires numerous repairs and also a thorough cleaning. On arrival, I immediately noticed the low level of cleanliness of the whole house: all the surfaces had a sticky layer of grime and appeared that it had not been properly cleaned with hot water and soap in quite some time. I was not greatly bothered by this, but I requested that we be supplied with cloths in order to clean it as there were absolutely no cleaning materials supplied with the house. Throughout our stay it became more and more apparent; the bad state the house was in. On the first night, we noticed that three of the heaters were not working (in the kitchen, the upstairs hallway and in the double room). It was an extremely cold night and we had to buy a lot of fuel to try to warm up the house. The double bedroom, in particular, never warmed up and was absolutely freezing. The next morning, we talked to the caretaker, and he said that he would try to arrange for an electrician to call out as it appeared to be a problem with the fuse box. He noted that it may be difficult to get one as it was short notice on a Bank Holiday weekend but that he would try his best. As far as we were aware, the electrician did not come to fix the fuse box/heaters. The fuse box remained the same, with several of the switches broken. We were obliged to buy several more bales of briquettes in order to keep the house warm – 5 in total. As it turned out, we found out from the caretaker, on the last day, that the electrician had, in fact, come and fixed the heaters. He had set up a new fuse box as he had not been able to get the switches to work on the normal fuse box. We were not told that he had fixed anything, nor did he leave a note and, as the fuse box still looked broken, we naturally assumed the heaters were still not working. The caretaker said that he told somebody in one of the other houses (part of the bigger group we were with) that they could take a blow heater that he lent us, as our house did not need it anymore because our heaters were fixed. We never received this roundabout message and I doubt the person even realised that they were meant to inform us that the electrician had come and fixed our heating. On the first morning, we were all woken up at 6:30am by an alarm going off (5 adults and 2 children). It was not clear where the noise was coming from at first, as it was starting and stopping at irregular intervals. It turned out that it was the smoke alarm and we were obliged to remove its battery. The caretaker replaced the battery later that day. We then noticed that the upstairs shower was broken: the attachment to the wall was broken and one had to hold the shower head whilst showering making it quite difficult to use. We reported this to the caretaker and he said that he would replace it. This was not done during our stay. There was also no heater in this large bathroom, making it impossible to bathe young children there as it was freezing cold. Over the next few days, more and more signs are neglect became apparent; from uncovered wires hanging out of the walls, to filthy curtains shredded to pieces, from vomit-stained carpets, to a broken single bed. This culminated when one of our group, whilst climbing into bed, placed her foot slightly under the bed. She realised that something had gotten stuck to her and looked down to see an old, used condom stuck to her foot. It goes without saying that this is absolutely unacceptable and, for me, sums up our whole stay in your holiday home. When talking to the caretaker at the end of our stay, he said that we could have moved houses at any time, to another holiday village in the town. I do not agree with his reasoning. We were on holiday for a total of 4 days and the thought of repacking and moving house during this time would have been quite an ordeal, especially with two young children. Also, our friend who was staying in one of your other houses in the estate, viewed this other holiday home – it was quite a bit further out of the town with no footpath to walk on. With young children and only one car between 7 people, this was not a viable option. We chose your holiday village because of its proximity to the town and seafront - we did not want to be relying on a car. We are looking for a full refund of €450 and also want you to cover the fuel expenses €17.50 incurred as a result of your faulty heaters and bad communication. Yours sincerely, X ---------------- Received from Dream Ireland on 14/4/11 ------------- Dear X I tried to phone you today in relation to the letter I received regarding your stay at The Links Holiday Village. Firstly, I wish to apologise for the disappointment and inconvenience experienced by your party. We at Dream Ireland pride ourselves in the high standard of our accommodation and I apologise profusely that you were not satisfied with the level of cleanliness/maintenance in the house. I have passed your comments on to the onsite supervisor, and indeed to the Director of the development. In relation to the heating problems, the caretaker assured me he did manage to get this fixed within 2 hours of being notified. Granted it should have been working in the first place but he did rectify the situation as soon as he possibly could and had given you an electric heater in the meantime. He did also offer alternative accommodation just on the outskirts of Lahinch. X, we value your business and hope that the shortcomings will not deter you from booking with Dream Ireland in the future. I can offer you a refund to the value of Euro 150.00 and can have that cheque in the post by tomorrow. I look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards Reservation manager -------------- Sent to Dream Ireland 15/4/11 ------------ Dear Reservation manager, Thank you for your email. We are disappointed with your response. We feel that Dream Ireland has not taken our complaint seriously. With regard to the heating, the caretaker did not tell us that it had been fixed - that was the whole problem. We also explained why the alternative accommodation was inappropriate for our large group. The logistics of moving 3 houses of people with children, who are just staying in the area for just a few days, should not be difficult to understand. Overall, we feel that the offer of €150 falls far short of compensating us for the problems and inconvenience we encountered. However, we realise we probably don't have much choice but to accept the €150. Please send a cheque to ___________. Regards, X

A great family holiday with Dream Ireland Holiday Homes - Alison McCarthy. Date of travel: May 2008
We had planned to go abroad over the May Bank Holiday weekend this year but left it too late so by the time we got around to looking, everything decent seemed to be booked up. We had promised the kids a few days away so reluctantly started to search for something suitable here in Ireland. We saw an ad in the newspaper for Wolseley Holiday Homes in Tullow in Co. Carlow and a list of onsite facilities advertised so we looked it up. A website or company I had never heard of before as we always go abroad for our hols. Anyway, we found loads of places that would be ideal for our family. We really liked the idea of staying somewhere with a hotel and a leisure centre onsite for our kids – anything for peace! Wolseley Holiday Homes seemed to tick all the boxes. It is just over an hour’s drive from Dublin (perfect when you have little ones in the back seat!) and is in the grounds of the Mount Wolseley Hotel, Spa and Country Club. The website said that we could use the swimming pool, kiddies pool, playground, games room and more for free and that there was also a championship golf course onsite (perfect for him) along with a spa (perfect for me!). When we got there, we were not disappointed. The houses were huge with 4 bedrooms so we had our own bedroom (none of this messy sharing rooms in a hotel) and each of our three kids also had a room to themselves. We booked for the full week as we said we’d make the most of it. The kids absolutely loved it down there and they had loads of space to run around and have fun. We even invited my sister and her daughter down for 2 nights as we had space for them. Most evenings we cooked in but a couple of times we went up to the Hotel and had lovely food in the lounge. It’s a family friendly hotel so you don’t need to be worrying where they are or what they’re getting up to! I have to say, if you’re anything like me and haven’t had a holiday in Ireland for a few years, give it a try! It was so much less hassle than arriving at the airport hours before take-off, strip searching for security, flight delays, baggage restrictions etc! We just threw everything into the car, the bikes on the roof rack and headed off in our own time. I would highly recommend Dream Ireland to anyone looking to book a home holiday this year as they seem to have properties all over Ireland.

Let down by Dream Ireland - Paula Martin. Date of travel: Aug 2007
Just a word of warning to all those booking accommodation with DreamIreland. Last August I booked three properties in The Great Western Parklands Mulranny, Co. Mayo. It was for my own family, my sister's family and my sister-in-law's family. (Both groups travelling from Spain). A few weeks before arrival DreamIreland contacted me and said the properties weren't finished, no landscaping done etc. I called Tony the Director and he personally assured me that it would all be done and that there is no way he would send us if there were any outstanding issues. I took him at his word unfortunately! All 16 of us arrived to a nightmare. No landscaping was done at all. The place was awash with muck and builders debris such as electrical cables and reels, bricks, machinery, nails, rubbish. Three houses were ready for us but were surrounded on all sides by muck and water, the children couldn't have set foot outside.There was one poor woman on hand to assist but all DreamIreland were offering was a few hundred Euro back or a move to houses near Ballina. This didn't suit as some of the group specifically wanted to surf in Achill and we'd already driven for over three hours. We then said we'd move to small unfinished houses that at least were arranged around a courtyard so the children could safely walk outside. We had no hot water, electrical sockets were hanging off the walls, floors were dirty, the washing machine didn't work. Tony from Dream Ireland wouldn't take my calls and never to this day contacted me to apologise. Our holiday was ruined which was such a pity as the Hotel itself is lovely and well serviced. Mulranny and Achill are beautiful. Myself and my family were due to stay two weeks but at that point I couldn't face the thought of giving my poor baby another cold bath so we moved to the house in Ballina for the second week. Lovely house but we just didn't want to be there. I'm so scared by the memory that we're going to rent in Spain this summer, truly I may never holiday in Ireland again. I still find it hard to believe that the director of a large company would be so untrue to their word, happy to take our money and run.

Kerry - an amazing week! - Orla Murphy. Date of travel: Oct 2006
Just back from an amazing week in Kerry and thought I should tell everyone about it, as I myself often use this site to check visitor comments before I travel abroad. Well this year things went a bit astray and there was no foreign trip booked for mid term, in fact we had resolved ourselves to staying at home, but as the time neared I think we were all in need of a short stay, so I rang around a few self catering agencies (hotels are out with 3 kids). I had my mind set on Dingle, but having left it so late, I found that anything decent was already fully booked. I called one company, Dream Ireland, not sure if I am allowed to mention their name, but I think they deserve it. They too had some beautiful locations in Dingle but they too were fully booked. The girl in reservations asked if perhaps she could recommend an alternative location for me and as I had nothing to looe I was up for any suggestions. She recommended a 4* property called Grove Lodge, in Killorglin, Co Kerry (I have to admit it's not a location I was too familiar with but it sounded perfect). The Dream Ireland Representative emailed me on a link and the homes looked fantastic, and as it turned out that they were less than 45 minutes drive to Dingle, so a day trip was certainly on the cards from the outset. Anyway, when we arrived at The Grove we were met by the onsite Representative, Adrienne, who was both professional and friendly. She showed us to our house, over looking the River Laune (something I was a little apprehensive about to begin with but I was delighted to see that it was actually very safe, obviously the kids need to be watched around the decking area). The whole site is pedestrianised also. The house was clean, modern and warm on arrival (very important when you have a new baby). We had asked on booking if babysitters were available and were told it was best to check with the on site Supervisor who usually has a list of local girls, and she did. She also recommended some local restaurants and a very interesting new Tapas Wine Bar in the centre of town. We gave her the details of when the babysitter was required and she left. We received a call some time later to say all was arranged. That evening we just took a walk to town and surveyed what it had to offer (to get our bearings as my husband might say). There is a host of bars and restaurants to choose from, so our evening itinerary was set for the week. We did a shop and headed back to our accommodation. Over the following days, we visited the beautiful beaches in Rossbeigh and went horse riding. We took our trip to Dingle and stopped along the way to have a walk along Inch beach. We went to Indoor Kiddies Adventure Centres in both Dingle and Killarney during the week and again on Adrienne’s recommendation visited a local hotel with leisure facilities that were open to the public. We also got to visit the Tapas bar which was wonderful (on enquiring with a local lady, we found out that the building was an old church that was recently renovated and that the proprietor also owned “Nicks” the restaurant next door, which also came highly recommended) there was a real buzz about the place and everyone seemed to be embracing the new addition to a beautiful town, wine was in full flow. To be honest going on personal recommendations from Adrienne and locals alike, we could easy have stayed and been fully booked out for another week. So all in all, the location of The Grove Lodge was perfect for touring, Tralee, Killarney, Dingle and the beautiful Ring of Kerry and returning to such a well-kept house at the end of the day was a joy. Big thanks to all the Dream Ireland staff and just so as you know, I will be booking an Irish Holiday again. It’s so much more relaxing than our usual trips abroad, no passports, planes or jet lag to worry about, and what a time the kids had exploring their own country, Torc Waterfall, Muckross Gardens, The Lakes of Killarney, The Ring of Kerry, the list is endless.