I was really looking forward to Hotel Kilkenny and it was entirely disappointing and definitely not worth the money- it was the most expensive hotel I stayed in on my entire trip (with the exception of a 5 star castle).
Upon checking into Hotel Kilkenny at 3:00pm on August 13th, I was told my room was not ready yet. That seemed quite late to not be ready, but was just the first of many things that were not ideal. Then when I asked to store my luggage, I was told to leave my luggage just to the left of the desk, in the open where people were coming and going and grabbing their bags. It seemed shocking to me that there would not be a safe and secure place for luggage- particular for people who are traveling with their passports, money, and other valuables.
Later in the evening, I finally got around to unpacking in my extremely hot room (it was 83 degrees farenheit and there was no A/C- albeit the weather rarely ever gets that hot) and was looking around the room for robes to go to the pool in. There were none in the room, which was unusual, and when I called down to the front desk, I could not seem to reach anyone. So my friend and I walked to the front desk and requested two robes to take with us as we were on the way to the pool. Jamie (who I believe was a manager) said he could send the robes to the room. I told him that would not be helpful, as we were on our way to the pool now so could they be delivered to the gym or could we just get them now at the desk. His inability to problem solve and meet our needs was a bit off putting and we ended up walking from the sauna to our room in our towels completely unnecessarily. Furthermore, in order to swim in the pool you must have a swim cap (a country rule), just as a heads up.
Later I noticed that the electrical outlets were not compatible with my European adaptor (I had been in Europe for 4 weeks). I called down to the front desk to inquire about the outlet situation- was I missing something? Or did the front desk have an adaptor that I can use for that evening. This is not unheard of- in fact, I know that many of the hotels that I travel to overseas offer adaptors to borrow. Jamie, the manager on duty that day, took my call and was incredibly unhelpful and frankly, incredibly rude. He told me that I should have “done my research before I visit a country” and offered no solution to the adaptor dilemma. Needless to say, I was absolutely appalled at this inappropriate comment. Perhaps I should have done more research, but Jamie might want to do some research of his own on how to properly speak to hotel guests and how to be a problem solver for the people he is there to assist.
Later that evening, there was a nice man working at the desk who suggested that I purchase one of the adaptors in the lobby (which I did). Had Jamie made this suggestion hours earlier, then we wouldn’t be in this situation, but he couldn’t resist making a snarky and uncalled for comment.
For $263.00 per night (which is completely overpriced for Hotel Kilkenny), the service that was offered and the quality of the hotel is simply not up to par. I asked to be called the day I checked out on August 14th and followed up on the 21st with an email since I heard from no one. I was finally emailed back on August 24th with a message that said "sincerest apologies for the lack of communication" and "thank you for your feedback" but no where did anyone ever apologize for the rude comments, poor service and lack of professionalism.
Do yourself a favor and stay elsewhere.
