Staycation price included bats on premises... but they are friendly
IT’S another summer when most of us will have no option but to stay in Ireland.
But a staycation could do severe damage to your mental and financial health.
The Irish Mail on Sunday has unearthed some depressing stories of tourists being ripped off and duped as they attempt to enjoy some much-needed R&R.
These include: a four-figure holiday rental property on the wild Atlantic way that was infested with bats.
When the renter complained, the owner suggested that previous guests ‘had learnt to make friends with the bats’.
In another case, a family who rented a €400-a-day house in West Cork arrived to find the owners camped in the back garden.
One family member told the MoS: ‘I couldn’t believe it. It was actually my children who noticed them first. Now it was a big garden – more like a field – but that doesn’t excuse it.
‘We realised they’d just moved out of their house to rent it out.
‘All their stuff was everywhere. It was desperate,’ they said.
In another case, a ‘rabbit hotel’ charged €320 for the care of two rabbits for two weeks’ stay.
When the rabbit owner attempted to cancel the ‘hotel’ reservation with a week’s notice, they were told they would have to pay in full anyway.
Other examples include:
▪ A multinational car hire firm that charged
€340 for four days’ car hire in Dublin on its smallest model and then refused to refund any money when the res- ervation was cancelled with four days’ notice;
▪ A café in Co. Mayo which increased its cake prices twice in one week from €3 for a slice of carrot cake to €3.50 and then €4.50. When questioned about the apparently random price change, the café owner replied: ‘I’m making the cakes bigger every day.’
Sinn Féin tourism spokeswoman Imelda Munster said it is now a case of ‘buyer beware’ when it comes to Irish holidays.
Ms Munster told the MoS: ‘The tourism industry here will only have itself to blame when people turn their back on it next year.
‘If providers hike the prices this summer, people will just go away next year and maybe even this summer.
‘Remember, holidaymakers mightn’t have a choice right now, but they will come the middle of July.
‘It’s in the industry’s own interest here not to charge these crazy prices. People won’t forget being ripped off.’