AVOID THIS PLACE, IT IS A This is the sort of place that gives the many hardworking and hospitable hosts on this site - not to mention airbnb itself, a bad name.
If you look through my previous reviews and reviews of me as a guest, I am not given to writing (or receiving) bad reviews. I am only writing this out of absolute necessity for other guests and the airbnb community. If someone with a long history of good reviews saying stay away is not enough to convince you, a long and detailed review follows:
I’ve stayed in plenty of old Irish houses, but this one is not fit for guests.
A quick rundown of the first day and night: Check in was fine. The house looks nice enough from the outside, until you realize that the property is tiny and surrounded by a fence with barbed wire at the top. There isn’t much surrounding property and there was no bench out front as in the photo. There were, however, cigarette butts and other trash strewn across the lawn. I’d driven nearly five hours from Dublin to get to the house, and there’s no cell or wifi (I expected that to be the case, so that bit was okay), so I couldn’t just up and leave. After the sun went down, I noticed that some of the lights were out. I also noticed there was only one bit of peat for the fire. Additionally, I noticed the shower was leaking water onto the floor. When the shower was turned on (no soap left for me), it sprayed water all over the floor, which needed to be cleaned up every time. After my shower I went to make a cup of tea. The kettle was old and plastic covered with brown grime on the inside and had rusted coil in the bottom. I boiled water on the stove in a pan instead. That night I couldn’t sleep because a chemical smell — which I assumed was air freshener — was so thick in the house it was burning my eyes. One of the bedrooms wasn’t as bad as the rest, so I slept in there with the window open. Still, I decided to drive down the mountain a bit for a signal to email Tadgh on the first night.
He told me he’d get the house cleaner/keeper up to take care of the problems. He acknowledged the shower, the cigarette butts and the kettle.
Here’s his email:
“Good morning Andre.The housekeeper sent you a message indicating that she was returning to the house today with provisions as there was enough for one day but not for your complete stay.Sorry the shower is leaking,the seal needs to be fixed.I will get the plumber to fix this but it may not be today.I will sort out the kettle.There are replacement lightbulbs in the store area.As for the air fresh product I will talk to the housekeeper .This issue hasn't, been mentioned by any other guest .As for the cigarette butts...this was a issus with the last guest's and I am resolving this with Airbnb. I know you have nothing to do with this..Enjoy your day and can you leave the key in the lock box, so as the housekeeping can leave the provisions in the house.Thank you.”
After I got back up the mountain from sending the email, I noticed that the air freshener smell had mostly dissipated, but that mold - which looks like dangerous black mold - and mildew pervaded the house. When the cleaner came up, she brought some bricks of peat and said that they only provide enough peat for one night. She brought a new kettle, and, after putting it on the counter, she said to me three times that no one has ever had a problem with it (happy to provide images of it, if anyone is interested - it was absolutely filthy). She did not bring soap. She did not bring lightbulbs, and told me to change out lightbulbs from other rooms if I wanted! She also said they never used air freshener. She also said that the cigarette butts were from a previous tenant that they were having a dispute with, but no one made a move to clean them up. The butts and other garbage remained on the lawn for my entire stay.
I went into Portmagee and Valentia Island that day and emailed Tadgh back thanking him for the kettle and told him I’d make do with the rest. The problem was, I hadn’t noticed just how many other problems there were with the house.
When I got back later that day I noticed that the kitchen sponge was dirty, used, and tiny, and that the oven mitt was covered in filth. Underneath the sink? A canister of nearly Pan Aroma Pink Orchid & Lotus Flower air freshener. Also, one of the cupboard doors was broken. When I took another shower that day, I saw that the bathroom sink coming away from wall.
The more time I stayed at the house, the more frustrated I became, and the more I realized that the ad is deceptive to potential airbnb renters. There were cobwebs in one of the bedrooms, tons of old pipes of wood and old furniture and garbage tucked directly behind the house. The spare bed and box frame stored in and taking up space in the bedroom upstairs, which was decorated with a painting hung up with tacks — one of the rusty tacks fell out when I was there (and was bent and impossible to rehang). The furniture was extremely old. The walls were not bright and well-maintained as indicated in the photos, and in fact in some places the walls were falling apart. The listing does not indicate that one bedroom has no door. There was no curtain in bathroom covering up the boarded-up window. And on and on.
If I hadn’t been so far from home in