Kagehitokiri

removed

Pauldublin

[QUOTE=Earthman;10180891]I know you'd get that at Ashford castle for about €150 per person or at least I have often.In fairness,An ip search doesn't include a secret web cam shot of who was doing the posting.
If the capella supportive post came from a Capella ip address,it could have been anyone that made it and certainly is not proof that it was on the hotels say so.
To suggest that is a ridiculous over inference to make in my opinion.
It's just as ridiculous,I think, to draw conclusions on a hotel based on that inference. Quote `: Earthman



Ashford Castle is appalling.
It is quite obvious that the positive post was from capella.

Earthman

Stating that as a fact though doesn't invalidate my point does it?

I've posted on bb's from the business centres of many hotels sometimes favourable to a particular hotel-Does that leave me open to be accused of being an employee of one of these hotels?
No it doesn't.
It's not definitive.
In theory this thread could come up in a google search and someone could be motivated enough to register and reply.

Don't get me wrong here,I appreciate what you suspect,I'm just in favour of the benefit of the doubt as to a posters circumstances and I certainly think it's incorrect to judge a hotel on what may be the digressions of an employee or may just be as I said someone staying who just happened to google at one of their business centre's.

Earthman

With all due respect,Ashford castle is not appalling.

Pauldublin

I guess its a matter of opinion. In my opinion its an appalling 5 star hotel, perhaps an average 3-4 star. The service is 3 star, the rooms are badly maintained. The location is beautiful and the food is good in the connaught, not so good in the george V. Breakfast is awful for a supposedly 5 star, poor for a 4 star.

Earthman

I couldn't disagree with you more there,having stayed there perhaps 10 times this year.Service has been faultless in my experience and I've yet to see a shabby room.
That said I can empahatise with you a little as one or two bad experiences are enough to ruin anyones view of a hotel even if there are people there who are having a lovely experience.

Martin is in the George V in my opinion one of the best Maitre' D's I've came across.The quintessential host who treats everyone the same and warm regardless of who you are.
Don't get me started on what I think of the food or the wine list there,you'll only get me hungry
I've no connection whatsoever with the hotel-lest I get accused of that by the way.
Horses for courses I suppose

Amanjunkie

I agree! I think it was Santa Claus that hijacked the Capella offices and forcibly wrote a defense of the Castlemartyr property despite protests from Capella management!

Funny how the now-suspended poster wrote that he "recently stayed" at the property, and not that he was "currently staying" there like you assume.

Earthman

Hmmm,that doesn't invalidate my opinion either.
In response to your post above,I refuse to talk about the suspended poster,thats why I edited my post at the end of page 3 .Rather I'll just repeat that I was making a couple of what I consider to be valid points

Raffles

But this is the rub. When the hotel opened a year ago it was charging Euro 425 for a basic room, B&B. The room I had was Euro 750. It got rave reviews, which inspired us to book at a Euro 495 rate (for the Capella Room which was Euro 750 on opening).

I've just checked online and they have, it seems, taken a knife to rates across the board. This has only been done in the last week or so since - like a good FT'er - I double-checked prices the week before we went and they were still asking Euro 495 for the Capella Rooms.

Now (for next Wednesday 20th) Capella Rooms (80 square metres, basically one bed suites) are going for Euro 275, basic rooms - still 50 square metres - Euro 175. (Although the Irish Times offer of Euro 180 for breakfast, dinner and golf obviously trumps this.) This implies that they have thrown in the towel on quality and are happy to drop into a 'lower price, lower service' four star mentality.

There is nothing wrong with this, of course - it is an economic decision by the property. And, if I'd booked at Euro 275 a night and didn't know that a year earlier this property was being described as a revolution in hotel keeping and Capella seen as real competition for Four Seasons, I wouldn't have made half of the criticisms I did since I wouldn't have been expecting much. Perhaps I was just unlucky in booking at a higher rate before they decided to throw in the towel on being a luxury property and decided to settle for a Sheraton-style existance. (The only local competition is the new Sheraton resort at Fota, so this is a fair comparison.)

Earthman

Raffles Hayfield manor in cork city is a far far nicer hotel than the sheraton foto island and is located a 15 minute walk from the city centre.
So I wouldn't agree that foto is the only other choice to Capella in the area.

I've stayed in both quite a few times including since most of the rooms in hayfield were re done in the last year-about half of them now have a funky style to them whilst the rest are more traditional.
Foto island is like a standard marriot or westin in comparison.

xracer

And if you have an address in NA, the rates are even lower. I think I saw a E105 rate for the basic room in this case.

Earthman

That couldn't be right? Thats cheaper than a jury's inn..

Amanjunkie

If that's the case, then Raffles' experience would be somewhat "understandable", but by no means "justified" (especially since he didn't pay these discounted rates). With this price range and service as reported by Raffles, I think it would be safe to cross Capella Castlemartyr off the luxury properties list.

Wow, sadly this whole debacle puts a huge dent in the credibility of the Gallivanter's Guide which made Capella Castlemartyr their "Hotel of the Year 2007". I remember reading on another thread that Raffles made his booking purely on their recommendation, and that he hadn't even heard about the hotel until he read about it in the GG! Of course it's not the fault of the publication, which had a brilliant experience at Castlemartyr early on, but possibly its readers who don't frequent FlyerTalk won't know of the disaster it's become. Perhaps an update is in order in the next issue of the Guide.

If I was one of the silent investors in Capella, I would be seriously worried. With several new properties still in the pipeline, it seems the "chain" is expanding way too fast, and resting the reputation of each new hotel on its initial months hoping to secure as many positive reviews as possible, and then taking the foot off the gas to make more money elsewhere.

Not a good long-term strategy, in my opinion.

Kagehitokiri

havent we established that GG does read this forum? so they should at least be aware of the service drop offs now. i would imagine they would be able to investigate further on the exact causes. and DUS is now the property to watch.

Amanjunkie

Yes, what I mean is that unless GG provides an update on the property, its readers, like Raffles, may book the hotel based on its strong recommendation, which of course, would affect the Guide's reputation.

Well it seems Capella management has been busy working their PR magic, not only on FlyerTalk, but on Tripadvisor as well. The latest contribution on the hotel's listing smells strongly of a fake review, and almost a point-to-point counter-attack to Raffles' review. I won't quote the whole thing, but here are a few tidbits:

"We ate in Ballymaloe on our first night and living up to expectations it was wonderful - the old world charm I had expected."

"However, the real treat was the Bell tower. The setting is beautiful and the food falls in line with the entire hotel - we felt the service was excellent and attentive and the restaurant was buzzing with atmosphere."

"we then had drinks in the bar - Knights - it was lovely as the piano was being played and we could talk to each other with being over heard! Barry th bar man was fantastic company telling us about the resort and its history."

"We had a slight issue with our tv but once reported to engineering all was sorted - quick response!"

"the bathrooms are luxurious and the amenities in the rooms are delightful - free tea and coffee in a five star hotel is rare these days so it was good to see -"

"Not to drag on but I feel it deserves this comment> as a regular spa goer - i was impressed with Auriga Spa and the Organic pharmacie products they use. the pool has no smells of disinfectant and is bright and large.the treatments are exspensive but I felt worth it - nearly all the therapists were Irish which is also good to see."

"We felt the hotel is beautiful with little things that really do make a difference. The service is efficient and friendly while remaining discreet. I was impressed the amount of Irish staff there - its not usual you would see this."

"We Loved Capella and I think it will make the other "five star" hotels stand up and take note - there is a lot to learn!"

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...unty_Cork.html

Of course, the most damning of all is:

Joined: Aug 5, 2008
Last visit: Aug 5, 2008

Of course, this is all circumstantial "evidence" and to anticipate Earthman's point-of-view, this very well could be just another satisfied customer. But I think those of us that are a bit more savvy to Internet tactics might find this review a little suspicious.

Personally, the parts I found most interesting were the xenophobia and the "golly gee" response to the lack of "smells of disinfectant" in a hotel pool (haven't really noticed overwhelming chlorine in a pool since high school myself) and "free tea and coffee in a five star hotel"!