Bantry Forum: Lidl breaks

Hi holyhill,

this also happens when you take a SuperValu break, we were given a different menu on the few occasions we booked with SuperValu . You do feel as if you are being treated differently from the other guests as you can spot the people with the " Cheap " menu. These days now, with the hotels doing offers directly it is not any cheaper if you book through these breaks. You should shop around for a good deal.

regards Deedee

your first mistake was thinking that at Lidl break was a bargain - if you shopped around you could have got the same weekend for the same price or cheaper, with a full menu as a full paying guest.

Your second mistake was thinking it was lidl's fault - its not - its up to the hotel to take care of its customers so I would suggest if you have a disagreement with the hotel you should take it up with them.

Or maybe you might have been just expecting five star service on a one star budget?

You should shop around for next time - just because something is offered as a bargain doesn't mean it is.

It's like supervalue giving you a token every time you spend 20 Euro in the shop at christmas - if you fill the book of tokens you get a christmas turkey for half price - might sound nice at the start but when you see the size of the book, you must spend about 600 Euro to get 20 euro off a turkey - is this a deal - no!

same with hotel breaks

Axa Insurance runs a loyalty scheme which offers similar breaks to the Supervalu scheme at similar prices, the plus being you can access as many of these breaks as you want once you once you are a current Axa customer without having to save any vouchers, stamps etc. as you do with Supervalu. Not sure if you need more than one policy with them to qualify (we have several) but it's worth checking out if you do use Axa.

We've taken advantage of quite a few of the Axa weekend breaks over the past few years (the most recent being in June) in a range of three and four star hotels in locations including Cork, Wexford, Doolin, Achill Island and Kilkenny. In all we've had great rooms and great service, and in each hotel we were given the main hotel table d'hote menu available to all other guests for the dinner which was included in the package. We've also requested particular tables and had no problem in being allocated to them when we did. Good value prices,definitely but absolutely no bargain basement treatment of any kind!

Hi whales, i never said in my review if you check again, that it was Lidls fault. What i said was the menu was extremely scarce of food on the lidl break option. Also i did say to the manager that we were not pleased at being asked to move, but as it was a break away i certainly didnt want my daughter witnessing a scene, so it was a lot easier to move and at check out make another complaint, which i did. It was dining room was empty so i still did a bargain break and you will not get a 4 star hotel in West Cork for 45euro a night with an evening meal. I know as i have 2 in my family in the Hotel buisness. I did feel we were asked to eat earlier than we wanted to,as we wanted to eat around8.15 or 8.30, but i was told it was not available. The next available time was 9pm which was too late for my daughter. I contacted reception twice during the evening to check and both times was told that was the only time. Between everything we were still in the dining room at at 8.30pm and the the dining room was empty. At 8.45 when we were leaving no one was present in the dining room, so i feel we would have been allowed eat at any time if we were full paying guests....Some one please prove me wrong.......

We shouldn't belittle people who use the 'cheap breaks' as a means of having a holiday, many people could not afford to take holidays otherwise.

It seems strange to me however that with the present economic climate that hotels wouldn't offer their customers a choice of menu. Afterall stores such as Lidl and Supervalu make a big thing about 'Choice'. I really think that you should write to Lidl and make them aware of the situation.

According to recent TA reviews for the Maritime Hotel, Bantry, it seems that to some people that the hotel is not all that it presents itself to be, even some of it's website pictures are apparently misleading. Could this just be another four star Fawlty Towers, I wonder!!!

Any decent hotel will treat all guests the same irrespective of what they are paying for a room. I must say that this has been my experience on the three or four occasions when I have taken Supervalue breaks. I have not tried the Lidl breaks, but it should make no difference. The hotels are not doing us a favour, they are doing the deal because they need to fill the hotels.

i dont think anyone is belittling lidl or supervalue - merely pointing out that just because it says "offer" does not mean you are getting an offer - if you shop around you can get just as good as a "non offer" these days.

again your problem seems to be with the hotel - not the "lidl break" - so I wouldn't blame lidl for that - I would blame the hotel.

Have found in these times that you can get better value without these offers if you ring the hotel directly.