On November 15th, 2015 I made a reservation for a two night stay at the Anchor House Dublin for the nights of November 17th and November 18th for my trip to Ireland. My flight on the morning of November 16th was cancelled due to a mechanical issue preventing me from getting to Ireland at all that day. I went online and promptly cancelled the reservation on November 16th with the Anchor House Dublin. Additionally, I sent them an email advising them of the situation and requesting information on a refund since it was an advanced purchase.
I eventually made it to Ireland and for the first few nights stayed different places, but eventually decided to give the Anchor House Dublin a chance since they still hadn't responded to my emails and it seemed like a place I would want to stay. I made another two night reservation on November 19th for the nights of November 20thand 21st.
I arrived at the Anchor House Dublin in the early afternoon on November 19th to check in. I spoke with someone at the check in counter who asked me if I was the individual who previously cancelled their reservation. I explained to them that my flight leaving the United States was cancelled due to a mechanical issue and I wouldn't have made it to Ireland in time for the reservation. The woman behind the counter said she was willing to do me a favor and credited me what I already paid for the previous reservation towards my new one. She provided me my room key and I went up to the room. My initial impression of the establishment was poor. I noticed all the windows on each floor were drafty, the building was cold, the décor was outdated, the walls had cracks and the building was rather old. After getting situated in the room, I noticed it was very cold and drafty so I went back downstairs and inquired about the heat in the building. The lady explained to me that the heat came on via timer and started at 4pm, which was in an hour. I decided to wait until 4pm so I went back to the room, put my jacket on and huddled under the covers. At 4pm the furnaces did kick on, but they did not warm the room up as I was still shivering fully clothed walking around the room. I waited until 5:30pm to see if things improved before I went back downstairs to ask, again, about the heating situation. This time the lady came upstairs to my room and put her hand on the furnaces and said "well they're on" as if I wasn't already aware of that. I asked her if she could provide me with a space heater. This is where the customer service really went downhill because this question must have really annoyed her. She started on this tirade that heating overnight is not only wasteful but unhealthy and I must be a very unhealthy person if I need heat all night. She told me that nowhere in Ireland will I find heat all night long because it's just "not what they do here." She then asked, "Do you have the heat on in your house at night?" to which I said, "I absolutely do." She continued to tell me how unhealthy and wasteful I was for doing that, refused to provide me with a space heater and went back downstairs to her counter in a huff. I debated on mentioning to her before she left my room that the two previous places I stayed at the past two nights provided both continuous heat as well as a space heater in the room, but I decided not to. I decided at this point between the poor conditions and the unprofessionalism I was going to leave. I packed my things and went downstairs to inform her I wouldn't be staying due to the cold. In an attempt to be polite, I told her I imagined it was just my body being unable to adjust to cold weather since I was from a very warm part of the world. She replied with, "Well people from Spain stay here." It was evident to me that the situation was not going to improve so I again told her I was leaving. She shuffled through some paperwork before I left and said, "Well you're pre-paid for two nights so that's up to you. You're not getting your money back." And with that I was gone. read more