It is a number of years since I last visited this ...

It is a number of years since I last visited this hotel. Based on that experience and what I know of this hotel I would expect at this stage to be rating it four star. I am attending a wedding there in ten months time and called to reserve one of a number of rooms which had been allocated to the wedding party. The rooms are allocated at a reduced rate but I was shocked when informed that their terms of booking were not payment a week or a month ahead but full payment up front 10 months before the event. If the wedding had been booked earlier I could have been in a position of having to pay in full a year or more ahead.

Most of us will not drink and drive and are therefore a captive market with little option but to accept such outlandish terms. Guests booking hotels at reduced rates for weddings has in the past been considered as a concession to the bridal party to secure the event booking and maintain high occupancy rates. Following the recession in Ireland the hotel sector was one of the worst hit with a high proportion failing or having significant bank write offs. The cost was borne by the taxpayer as was the cost of additional reductions in vat which were introduced to help the industry. We are now being asked by Dunraven Arms to provide them with free cash flow at a time when for good reasons the banks are reluctant to provide them with working capital. This and other recent experiences tell me that hotels are now heading for a second 'Celtic Tiger' and I will now be lobbying my political representatives to end the concessionary vat rates which they still enjoy.