Sheen Falls Lodge

We visit Sheen Falls Hotel usually in January for a post Christmas break. My wife and I have heaped praises in past visits and posted excellent reviews. Let's start with the positives. Its location is just awesome. Our room was spacious and spotless. We were located just by the Falls. We ate two nights in the Brasserie. It was delicious. Our server John was a pleasure, on both nights. We loved the public areas in the morning to read the papers after breakfast. Kian in the bar was just a lovely guy. We loved his chats and cocktails. Personality we love the bar area. It's just gorgeous to sit in the afternoon and watch the raging river having a gorgeous pint of Guinness. Now the bad points. We had breakfast in The Falls Restaurant on three mornings. First morning our food was lukewarm. We let it be. Second morning on ordering our food. I mentioned to the manager, that the previous morning our food was lukewarm. Food was served, I will say it was slightly warmer. Morning three. It was cold again. I couldn't eat mine. Again I complained.. I was offered another breakfast. I declined. My wife also declined. Coffee was again lukewarm on all mornings. We dined in this restaurant on night 3. It was disappointing to say the least. Portions were small and again food was lukewarm. This is a five star hotel. Getting hot food and coffee from a kitchen to guests is not rocket science. In our opinion, there's a serious problem in this kitchen. We also found the public areas chilly during our stay. Pool area now is very dated. This needs a serious upgrade. On checking out we voiced our issues regarding breakfast, just to be brushed off with,Sorry about that. Not good enough in our opinion. Sorry Sheen Falls. It is unlikely we will return. Which is a pity really, because it's a lovely Hotel. But serious problems in The Falls Restaurant prevail.

We have just returned from a 5 night stay in Little Hay Cottage. We usually visit the hotel twice a year with our family and we absolutely love place. Our 3 kids aged 8, 5 & 2 love exploring the grounds, swimming, horse riding etc. Sheen Falls is a special place and we are always so well looked after by Scott who is an exceptional hotel manager. Also special mention to assistant manger Jesus who is excellent together with Marissa in the lounge and all of the porters who always look after us so well, thank you Brian, Dimitar etc. We will be back !

This is not the review I was hoping to write for this hotel. I am writing this to hopefully prevent somebody wasting their time on this establishment. I have tried three times reaching out to the general manager Brian to discuss my concerns. I have in fact tried to reach out to Relais&Chateaux who have also not replied. The first time I reached out to discuss my concerns was at the hotel itself, where I found it a perfect opportunity to start rectifying the mistakes being made. After asking to speak with the general manager Brian during our stay we were presented with a duty manager instead. Which I understand is the normal procedure. The second time was when I had left the hotel and wanted to hear from him personally after a confusion made in our payment. ( We have been paid for a dinner in `The Falls` restaurant which was never made available to us) I was told by his duty manager that his decision was final and he will not be speaking to me. The third time was actually via email. I will actually just highlight the main issues to hopefully make you think twice about staying here. I booked this hotel for a luxury stay as advertised on their website. The reviews are mixed as you can see. Some people love this place, some people less so. I had booked three nights, with two dinners and breakfast included to hopefully minimize the planning on my side during our stay. A week before our stay guest relations reached out to organize our dinners. Great I thought, that's attention to detail. It started going downhill when I never heard back from guest relations to confirm our dinners as I was trying to organize some other things for our trip. I phoned the hotel three times to try and confirm. Each phone call I was promised a call back. Nothing. The night before our stay I had an email saying `The Falls` restaurant was not available due to an event they've had in the dairy for months. (Why advertise a package stay if you don't have the facilities for your residents at the time) We arrived at the hotel to be treated by a receptionist not very confident in her position. We kindly asked for the manager to speak with us to clear up the confusion. Scott confirmed that the lack of communication was unacceptable. There was nothing he could do regarding the dinner ( I of course thought there was things Scott could of done to deliver on the package we had paid on. Made an expectation to fit a table for two on one night `The Falls` were open, looking back now I have no doubt with the evidence of mistakes being made across the board if Scott went down this route of making a special expectation then that would be a job on its own. We spoke to numerous guests who didn't have the opportunity to eat in `The Falls` restaurant after paying for the package also. I also believe he could have upgraded our room for the mishap, after years working in the hotel industry I know it's much easier for them to upgrade us and sell a more reasonable economic room at the last minute) We had paid for our package and we wouldn't be able to eat in `The Falls`. But anyway, have some champagne on me. (A gift - this is pertinent to the outcome ) Our room was lovely, big, spacious and quiet with an amazing view of the Falls . We had dinner in `The Stables`, casual dining. It was all fine, and the staff were pleasant enough. Not enough vegetarian options in my opinion but the food was pleasant when we visited and my mum thoroughly enjoyed her steak which was cooked to perfection. We had gone to the spa to hopefully book some facials. The receptionist at the spa was on a personal phone call at the desk and I am partially deaf so background noise is something I struggle with. My mum noticed this and mentioned that I wouldn't be able to hear due to her phone call. The receptionist just sat there and said "yes". We did not book the facials as if this is the first impression it did not inspire faith in the spa facilities. The first person whom the customer interacts with should be the face of the service delivery and therefore no personal phone calls while guests are trying to book a relaxing treatment should be a given. This is a tough one to write even after my stay but I would often be called sir/son ( via email and by staff in the hotel). I have never experienced this sort of inappropriate misgendering, and I never thought I'd face it in a five star luxury hotel. I can't tell you how tormenting this has been for me. I've worked hard throughout my life on how I look. How this hotel treated me in this scenario has brought back years and years of torment and disgust. I wish to say no more on this matter as I am working hard on dealing with this internally within myself. Breakfast was disappointing with slow service. An example of this was when ordering coffee at 0930. We reminded the waiters three times and eventually the wrong order arrived at 1020. We gave up and just drank what we were given. ( This isn't a sentence a five star establishment should be hearing from its guests) Some waiters were lovely but the women host was awful, speaking to guests extremely rudely. In fact when we were leaving the hotel one morning for a drive around Kerry, one of the servers greeted us and told us breakfast was a tricky time for the hotel and he told us to come early at 7am to get the right coffee we asked for. If you have made it this far in reading my review, I want to thank you. I had made every effort to pass my concerns onto the general manager. I felt so strongly about this stay, on check out I was metaphorically slapped in the face with 60€ dedication from the bill. Not even 8% of my stay. The duty manager informed me that Brian the general manager, thought the champagne and the cheapest night off was more than adequate for my stay. I've made every effort to pass on my concerns but the truth is, this hotel like every other is run by example. Their manager appears to show little care nor detail to their clientele and this attitude appears to be mirrored throughout the hotel. I truly have never been so disappointed and deflated by a stay. I still to this day have paid for dinner I didn't receive. I have no further expectations now but this was supposed to be a birthday treat for my mum whose health has not been great. This hotel truly took away my confidence and faith in hospitality. I was presented with a 100 euro gift voucher to stay in a sister hotel but politely declined as if this is the standard then there is little point. It is sitting currently in a drawer at home as I had no wish to embarrass the check out manager Raluca (who was indeed delightful, completely empathetic within the constraints of her position and endeavoured to intervene on our behalf) I advise you to stay away. On my exit I bumped into another guest and we chatted for half an hour about how awful our experience had been. I can only think people don't have the energy to leave a review for this hotel as it is truly that bad. If you have been here and disagree with my experience I am truly thrilled that you had a pleasant stay. It's all I wanted from the outset.

Overall I'd give our experience 3 stars We booked a suite it was just fabulous with open fire and Christmas tree etc. couldnt fault the suite. It was the highlight of our stay, it was so relaxing we got to put fire on and watch movies etc which having 4 kids at home is a rarity to down. Staff were amazing, friendly and couldn't do enough for you. We were very disappointed with the food. Breakfast was very poor. We had full Irish and it felt reheated both mornings. It was tasteless and overcooked. We also had lunch in the hotel. I ordered a toasted sandwich and got two soggy slices of bread covered in butter and a thin slice of ham. It was more of French toast. It was absolutely terrible. I sent it back straight away didn't order anything else as table beside us had to send their soup back 2 times as it was cold. I had ordered a West Coast cooler with my lunch (small can of it) €7 and they tried to charge me 18 euros for it. Always check your bill. We ate in the stables both night again food was very disappointing. Fish cakes terrible, food portions tiny and overall very bland, I was starving on both nights leaving the restaurant The restaurant also felt more like a canteen rather than a 5 star restaurant. Overall very disappointed with it. We were also very disappointed with the pool and spa area It was pretty basic, is normally spend hours in pool/spa.. only went once and was out in 30mins. It wasn't what I would have expect from a 5 star hotel. Overall the hotel could do with been done up lots of areas old and outdated. I'm not sure why this hotel won best hotel in Europe. It has a lot to improve on. We got engaged in the hotel years ago and thought it would be lovely to return. In conclusion I wouldn't return to this hotel given what we paid and overall experience

Just returned from a 3 night stay at sheen falls ...underwhelming to say the least. Was expecting so much more after its recent Michelin key and conde nante award would make you wonder who reviews for these awards but we were left disappointed On arrival we were greeted and offered a weak warm at best hot whiskey shown to our room with yes a gorgeous view of the falls but a smell of sewage in our room clearly coming from a drain in bathroom (note this was rectified upon our return to our room but only after we had to place a towel over it covered in perfume) Room was spacious but some very obvious areas of improvement simple things in bathroom especially The shower tray was delaminated around the plughole leaving it sharp and just grubby and the bath surround needed upgrading with obvious screws showing Bed was comfy and turndown a nice touch but overall room needs updating Food was just average breakfast on all mornings was without flavour and we tired many of the dishes Dined in the stables food was just ok ...thai fish cakes tasted like processed spicy turkey burgers The bar area in hotel had dirty cushions and just a general feeling of just being dirty and far from a deep clean The only positives was the cocktails ... the staff and the open fires On returning from being out all day yesterday not a one to be seen at reception or concierge wouldn't want to be checking in..! The spa area is definitely not even 3 star grubby floors drains and part of floor and surrounding pillars have pieces coming away the hot tub just looks dirty Sauna has wood coming away The surrounding furniture tired and cheap looking Overall a disappointment and the hotel needs a serious upgrade and reinvestment it has so much potential and is such a shame for the local area is so beautiful