My partner and I stayed here for two nights on the 11th and 12th of July. We had received a €200 Select Hotels gift voucher as an engagement present and had been eagerly awaiting for restrictions due to Covid19 to ease, in order to travel safely. We researched the list of available hotel options within the Select Hotel group and settled on the Riverside Hotel Killarney for our stay. We booked two nights bed and breakfast directly through the hotel and waited excitedly for our first post-lockdown trip away. While checking in at reception on our arrival, we informed the receptionist that we had a Select Hotel voucher that we would be using as part payment for our trip and the voucher was in digital form as an attachment to an email. The receptionist asked if we could email the voucher to them so she could print it off and attach a copy to the payment form. We did this and then payed the balance. We received our room keys and off we went to explore the many delights that Killarney has to offer. We had food and drinks in the Hotel’s Riverside Bar on the first night and drinks on the second night. We arrived at reception on the final morning to check out and pay for the food and drink we had charged to our room, to be informed that the Select Hotel voucher we had provided as part payment was invalid, as we had booked directly through the hotel and not through the Select Hotel site, this was stated in the fine print on the printed-off voucher and had not been seen by us or the hotel receptionist on arrival. We argued that their hotel was indeed in the Select Hotels’ group and the voucher we had used was for a Select Hotel and had been accepted on arrival and printed off by the receptionist and were shocked to be informed of this at checkout. We were then told that under no circumstance could we leave the hotel without first paying the €200 instead of using the voucher, we disagreed and said the voucher had been given in good faith and was accepted in good faith and surely this could be rectified between the hotel and the Select Hotel group. The General Manager was then phoned and we believed this would be rectified and we could go on our way. The General Manager then told my partner that if we did not pay the €200 he would call the Gardaí and have them waiting outside for us. All of this transpired in full view of other hotel residents in the lobby area and to say we were mortified is an understatement. In order to put an end to this horrendous scenario, we paid the €200 and sat outside to gather our thoughts. My partner then rang the Select Hotel group directly, and told them what had happened, and the threat we had received of being arrested from the General Manager over the telephone. The extremely professional and empathetic staff member could not believe what we had been subjected to, and took all the voucher details and immediately called the hotel. She failed to make contact with the General Manager as he now could not be reached by phone, however we were instructed to return to the hotel and were promptly given a refund of the €200 and the voucher was returned to the hotel. This has been the most humiliating ordeal we have ever been subject to in any establishment and as life long, law-abiding citizens, the threat of being arrested over using a hotel voucher to stay in the hotel was extremely disturbing. We will never stay at the Riverside Hotel Killarney again and I hope they can learn from this most unfortunate event. Thankfully, the Select Hotel Group honoured their voucher, which the Riverside Hotel could have done from the start and resolved this situation in a professional and kind manner.
