Its clear to see from other reviews that guests at this establishment are treated like bold children and school pupils. My experience was unfortunately not sparred by this. I have a severe allergy to cat hair. Never once in all my years spent travelling across Ireland have I encountered a commercial property such as a hostel, B&B or hotel having pet cats on the premises. With this in mind, I made a regrettable booking with Harbour House Budget Accommodation. After doing so, I inspected the reviews more thoroughly. Besides the general horrors that awaited me in the accommodation's many, many negative reviews; I was astounded to read that the owners had pet cats on the premises. As contact with cat hair would cause serious problems to my health - my obvious reaction was to cancel the booking immediately. The fact that cats are present in this accommodation was not stated on the hostels own website or on the third party website I booked through. It was not stated by the accommodation owners anywhere for that matter. If this information was present at the time of booking, I would not have made the booking. Obviously. Given the circumstances, I imaged my situation to be met in an understanding manner - how wrong I was.
You see, the booking was non-refundable. This was a non issue as we had every intention of staying there. That was until I learned by doing so, I would be putting my health at risk. I called Vincent, the owner to explain my situation. Vincent was absolutely horrendous to deal with from start to finish. His tone and attitude were deplorable and down right unnecessary. He started by having the audacity of asking me to produce a doctors cert to validate my allergy. While this request could have been completed with great ease, it would have cost me €60 to do so - the exact price of the room I booked. He then started to argue that he never had any encounters with guests with allergies in the past. Even if this was true, does this mean people with allergies do not exist...? After a lengthy conversation, he very reluctantly agreed to a refund of 50%. I accepted this rate simply to have the luxury of not having to tolerate speaking with this condescending man any further.
This situation is very simple; this business has a hazard on the property that prevented me from staying there. The existence of this hazard is of no fault of my own and there is nothing I can do myself to remedy it. This hazard is well known to the owners therefore it is the owners responsibility to make potential customers like myself aware of it. The owners have neglected to inform potential customers about this hazard therefore it is their responsibility to rectify any situation that may arise where the hazard stops guests from staying in their accommodation. They neglected to do so and as a result; I was entitled to a full refund. Very straight forward, but not to Vincent.
It is clear to see that having spent years in the hospitality industry, an industry that is in no way suited to this man, has left Vincent very stubborn, bitter, untrusting and paranoid.
The fact that this man finds it necessary or acceptable to let himself into guests rooms when they are out to go through their personable belongings and confiscate alcohol (another reviewers account) is beyond belief.
Asking your guests to produce doctors certificates to validate their allergies is nothing short of embarrassing. You need to have a word with yourself.
These accounts are to be expected within the walls of a primary school, not within the walls of a hostel with adult, paying guests.
To sum up; if you are looking for a pleasant stay in the county of Sligo; avoid this place like the Bubonic plague. There are many, far nicer B&B's located closer to the city centre which are run by very friendly, approachable, accommodating owners. Owners who clearly know a thing or two about customer service and how to run a successful business. Stay absolutely anywhere else but here. read more
