Hotel berhampiran Glenveagh Castle, County Donegal

After a long trip, we arrived at this hotel and my impression was not great. I rang the hotel early in the day to say that it would not be there until late and could we have evening dinner tomorrow instead of tonight. The person who answered said that I had no dinner booked and it took a while to resolve the matter. The 2nd was that I asked for 2 wine glasses to be left in the room. I asked this man as well but when I arrived, there was still no glasses in the room. This is poor attention to detail. There certainly was no ”Cead Mile Failte” from the receptionist when I arrived. He genuinely seemed like he would prefer to be in bed than saying hello to guests. The room on the 2nd floor was comfortable. 2 twin beds, 2 comfortable chairs, a very good shower/bathroom area and the room itself was decent. However it got quite warm during the night. I would have reservations staying in this hotel if it was a hot day. Yes you can open the window and pray that it is not that noisy. Breakfast was very odd. It is served in the conference room. The seating and tables are lovely but where you get your food is like it is a school/prison canteen. The contrasts could not have been more different. Service was ok if slightly indifferent. However along came Natasha who was so friendly and went out of her way to help. She is one of two reasons why I gave this hotel four instead of three stars. There is a lot of reasons why this hotel is very average. The other was Patricia. As part of this package, we had evening dinner on a Saturday evening. We had to eat in the restaurant as the bar was fully booked. Patricia went out of her way to make sure we were looked after, constantly asking if we were ok while other staff just walked around doing nothing. Dinner was excellent and breakfast was decent as well. The swimming pool is lovely and it is refreshing to see that the jacuzzi, steam room and sauna all worked. The lady at reception was very attentive and explained everything which is great. Again as we left, the receptionist felt like he had better things to do. There was no ”how was the stay”. It was goodbye and your bill is paid. There is certainly a number of things this hotel can do better but thankfully they have a few star performers. Pity about some others though.

Overall a disappointing experience. Getting checked in wasn’t easy as they were more interested in coach parties than solo travellers. Initially told 15:30 for check in, then 16:00 for check in and didn’t get checked in til 16:15. The room overlooked an internal space in the hotel and you could see into other rooms and there was no courtesy cover on the windows, such as voile or muslin. No towels were in my room and I believe this was the case in many rooms that day. This internal space overlooked ventilation ducts or something similar and the noise from these went on to the early hours of the morning and then started up again perhaps around 5:00. Out of 5 nights staying only on the final night was the noise stopped at an acceptable time. Breakfast was slightly warmer than warm but cooled down very quickly and was barely pleasant. Food in the Abbey Bar was ok but expensive for portion size. Overall while it’s a 3 star hotel there are many areas for significant improvement and the corridors etc are very tired and grubby looking. I wouldn’t rush back but believe the hotel next door to it is also part of the same corporate group. It’s a highly competitive market in west Donegal and I’m surprised the abbey can maintain its level of service based on what I experienced.