Cottage 427 - Clifden

Love Connemara Cottages were great to deal with; Lisa was very helpful, as was the property contact, Tracey. The cottage is in a beautiful location and is very spacious and well equipped.

Unfortunately I couldn't complete my stay at this property because of the issue below, but Love Connemara Cottages arranged alternative accommodation very quickly and I was happy with the second property. From my own experience, and previous reviews, it seems Cottage 427 has issues with the oil boiler, or fuel supply, causing a persistent smell in the kitchen/dining room, and a smell of kerosene on the water from the kitchen tap. Similar issues are mentioned in past reviews so it's clear that the issue hasn't been remediated fully and I wouldn't recommend staying here until it is. Possible contamination of the drinking water is particularly concerning. Otherwise: - The cottage could have done with a more thorough cleaning & inspection as there was a very dirty frying pan in a cupboard, and generally looked like it hadn't been swept/vacuumed very thoroughly. The tea towel in the kitchen was also unclean. - Strangely, very little toilet paper provided.

L'emplacement

Il manque des équipements en cuisine. Il serait préférable d'avoir une explication pour mettre en marche l'eau chaude sans le chauffage.

Locatie, prachtige ligging met een geweldig uitzicht! Goede en snelle service, toen de gastank leeg bleek te zijn. Clifden is erg gezellig en goede uitvalsbasis om de omgeving te verkennen.

Keukenblok en badkamer beneden erg verouderd! Het lijkt dan al snel vies en smoezelig. In de keuken ruikt het sterk naar gas/kerosine? Huis voelde klammig aan. Tuinmeubels verroest en gedateerd. Geen kapstok om jassen op te hangen.

Spectacular views, 5 min drive from Clifden. Nice and quiet.

Nothing.

The cottage is picturesquely and conveniently located just outside the town of Clifden. It's location (just off the main road) means you have easy access to the Westport - Galway Road, as well as to the town, without all the traffic noise. The bedrooms are a good size and comfortable and the kitchen and utility are adequately equipped for short stays, where guests are likely to eat out a portion of the time.

The oil burner for the heating system is located in the kitchen and produced an overpowering smell of kerosene whenever it was on. The open fire in the sitting room continuously back-filled the room with smoke, as there was no/inadequate ventilation in the room and perhaps the chimney needed to be cleaned (couldn't check this ourselves). We had to leave the door or a window open in order for the chimney to draw properly. The house had received a superficial clean before we arrived, but we soon discovered food debris and a bottle cork on the floor in the sitting room and the bathroom would have benefited from a deep clean. Despite our party of six staying for four nights, we were provided with a very limited selection of essential supplies. For example, there was one tea towel, one spare bin liner, no kitchen paper and the soap dispenser in the bathroom was almost empty. There was a very limited number of bath towels and just a couple of rolls of toilet paper. Further, there was no floor mat inside the front door, which meant that keeping the entrance way clean and dry in wet weather (every day of the trip) was a challenge. Some coat hooks in the hallway would have been helpful too. A little more attention to detail and comfort would go a long way to making this cottage a return destination for visitors. Not sure how the issue of the boiler and ventilation in the sitting room can be addressed however. Even moving the boiler (if possible) into the utility and moving the fridge into the kitchen from the utility would be a better and more logical option.