Carton House, A Fairmont Managed Hotel

We stayed at Carton House on Friday, 5th June. The food in Kathleen’s Kitchen was fantastic. The Dover sole was one of the best I have eaten in a long time. The Yellow Walk around the estate is also lovely on a beautiful day it is incredibly relaxing. At breakfast, Abraham (our waiter) was exceptionally friendly and helpful—an absolute credit to the hotel. The highlight of our stay, however, was the tour of the old house with Brian. He is incredibly knowledgeable and clearly passionate about sharing the history of the house. It was a thoroughly enjoyable and an informative experience. Thank you, Brian, for making it such a memorable part of our visit. Maurice and Mary

Regularly visit this hotel and mainly the Morrison restaurant. In recent times I’ve been so surprised by the lack of training of staff and the time it takes to to even get a glass of water in the lobby whilst having drinks. There’s a SERIOUS lack of trained staff and it’s so far from 5 start service. No wonder many skilled and highly trained staff are leaving it/not being attracted to the hotel! Management need to waken up!

The Carton House was our last hotel stay of a wonderful 17 day vacation through Scotland and Ireland. Every one of our hotels up until this point met or far exceeded our expectations. They had all been high end properties. We came here from the Ashford Castle. Upon check in around 1600 one of our two rooms was ready which was fine. My wife and I went to our room and we were going to get outside and walk and have a drink in lobby bar area. Before leaving room we noted it was very warm. I checked HVAC setting and all was on as it should be. I asked housekeeper in hallway if she would look and make sure AC was working or set correctly. After coming into the room and looking she said it is not and you need to call maintenance. I asked her if she would also. She probably should have said I will take care of notification rather than ask the guest to do it. Not a big deal at all. I went downstairs and advised the staff at the front welcome desk. Over three hours later (after we ate dinner) I went back to desk and asked if issue had been resolved or looked at. I was told "I see maintenance was notified." I confirmed we had talked about this three hours prior and were there any notes in my record about resolution to AC issue. She said not that I see. We went back to room figuring perhaps they missed updating the notes or the AC had caught up and was now working. It was not. All was the same. I requested the duty manager to come up. Two gentleman arrived about 10 minutes later and agreed it was not working. We are now over 4 hours into this. They said they could move us to another room. We agreed as I told hime we are exhausted and at the end of a travel and just want to get a decent night sleep. It then took 20 minutes for him to return to get our bags. We went to the new room and it was only slightly better. To be honest, it was cooler in the hallway than it was in the room. We slept the bed we could because I was tired and surprised not only at the lack of basic luxury hotel room comfort but the almost lackluster approach or show of concern. I will say that the manager on duty in the morning was very empathetic when I talked to him at checkout. Because our room was prepaid through our tour he credited me 50% for our prior night's dinner in Kathleen's Kitchen restaurant on site (which was great). I understand just like restaurants you can hav good meals and bad meals however, I got a feel ing of some disrepair in the two rooms we stayed in as well as a feeling of lackluster management and service with the exception of those in Kathleen's Kitchen. The unfortunate part is I would not recommend this location to a friend. It look great form the outside. I dont think this represents the values of the Fairmont brand either.

Disaster of a hotel, definitely not Fairmont standards. Food and beverage were good, but rooms and premise not well kept. Our room and wing we were in was hot as a sauna because the air conditioning was blowing out warm air in the room. Called at 9:30pm to have maintenance look, they verified it was not working and turned it off, and provided a fan. Yea. I asked when someone was either going to either fix or move us to a different room. He said reception would call shortly. After no call for over an hour I called them 3 times but no one ever answered. By now it was after 11:00 pm and I was tired trying to work with them and hot. Avoid this place, management doesn’t care.

We arrived at the Hotel which is breathtaking, fabulous grounds, a golfers paradise. The Cincierge is a gentleman, assisted with baggage and advice of where to park. We made our way indoors and progressed to check in, the gentleman at the desk was a little confused and took a while to get us organised and eventually we were on our way to the room, no assistance with baggage and as its quiet a walk from check in to our bedroom we were left to find our room independently. (30 meters away at least) Room was excellent, but no literature on the facilities and meal times. Following the signs on the doors led me to the Spa, absolutely fine when I made my way via several doors and some up/down steps. The pool was a joy excellent temperature as were the steam room and Sauna. NO Jacuzzi. a member of the team was in the process of cleaning the interior of the Sauna while I was there. The distance from the room to the arrivals area is quite a walk . Next morning I enjoyed another spell in the excellent Spa, ignoring the out of use Jacuzzi. Returned to the bedroom and dressed for breakfast and made our way to the area for breakfast, what a trek from our room to the far end of the hotel, through several rooms and corridors) This was to the outdoor area where the breakfast room was and breakfast was being served. This was the lowest point of our stay .... fabulous display of breads, cereals fruit and yogurt, BUT.... tea from banquet jugs and coffee the same, A definite NO-GO from a hotel of 5 stars, both were tepid and the milk was beginning to 'turn'. Whatever happened to the good old fashion pot of tea and the same with Coffee. Next was the cooked breakfast ... 1) was Eggs Benedict,..2) was Eggs on thick slices of ham/bacon both on baps. Very poor fare indeed. Overall, nothing to encourage us to return, I was so disgusted and disappointed by the overall experience. Carton house Hotel is a fabulous facility on fabulous setting, either needs new management or professionally trained personnel. End of.