COLUMN: Rip-off Ireland alive and well - I should have eaten the porridge!

Staycations should be encouraged after everything businesses went through during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This column is not meant to discourage people from holidaying in Ireland; it’s a wonderful place to be and there is so much to do.

But there are certain businesses, primarily hotels across this country, that are taking the piss.

And it’s not just about how much some are charging for a three-night stay (from Wednesday to Saturday) in county Cork.

Inflation is concerning people at present - and I hear that trips to Spain are also incredibly expensive so maybe everyone is price gouging.

But what we paid for three nights in the Rebel County a few weeks ago - I feel like for the same money in early 2020 I would have gotten two weeks in a villa in Lanzarote.

But let’s say we can make our peace with the cost (which we certainly can’t) but for the purposes of moving this column along...

Our frustrations during our stay in this hotel (which I won’t name) also stemmed from the standard of food and service we experienced which left a bad taste for a couple taking their first proper “trip away” since before Covid-19 landed on our shores.

My mother and my niece came with my wife and I and our son, Jack. The little fella - who will be two-years-old in August - didn’t know this but he was on trial for a trip to Spain in the summer. We wanted to see how he would get on in a hotel room etc.

How he will react to the flight in June still remains a mystery but he passed the hotel test.

Anyway, we went for dinner the first night in our hotel, my mother got the buttermilk chicken burger for dinner and it was pink in the middle and she had to send it back. It can happen to any establishment.

We were mortified sending it back, but we did. The issue now being; this was only the beginning of a litany of terrible experiences over the next three days.

I told the mother, at least these were memories we’d never forget. We were now very worried about the hotel breakfast. Surprise, surprise, it was also horrible.

The single best thing about staying at hotels - the breakfast - and we couldn’t even look forward to it. The rashers looked boiled and the warm breakfast was bordering on being cold.

Bread was often stale at breakfast time and the nicest thing there was the porridge - by the Saturday we had all seen sense and it was porridge all around - which made us all feel like we weren’t getting our money’s worth. I could go on as to what else went wrong but I don’t have enough space...

This hotel was not some unknown spot, it was part of a well-known chain of hotels.

Inspite of all that went wrong during our trip, we still had a wonderful time. We went to the Farmers’ Market in Mahon Point, we went to Fota Island, ate dinner there in The Clubhouse - which was amazing.

We went to the English Market, we ate out and drank cocktails on Washington Street and the mother got nice and wasted in Dwyers of Cork.

We, as a family, made it a nice trip but rip-off Ireland is surely alive and well so be sure to do your due diligence when planning your staycation.

Don’t get stung with a bad hotel like we did, cause they’re out there, and they’ll charge you an arm and a leg for sh*t food and service.

You’ll be lying awake at night thinking about how much the staycation cost wondering what’s the temperature in Salou right now?