Markree Courtyard

Stayed in Markree Courtyard for a family wedding at the weekend and cannot recommend it enough. The setting is beautiful, rooms were immaculate and the staff went above and beyond for us. From check-in to check-out we felt welcomed and well looked after. The food was excellent and everyone agreed that they could not rate the staff highly enough!

We stayed at the courtyard Hotel for one night while attending a wedding at the castle. Unfortunately the venue was unable to accommodate any early check-in or allow use of toilet facilities prior to 15.00. If you are attending a 14.30 event at the castle - factor this in to your planning, as you need to check in before 18.00 to avoid a charge. While we understood that the room was unavailable before 15.00, unfortunately there were several factors that made our stay uncomfortable. The owner/man who we had the misfortune or bumping into was dismissive and rude, exceptionally unpleasant to deal with. The reception was largely unmanned leaving a number for you to call for assistance, and our room did not have any soap or toiletary products. The location is great, and the staff are pleasant, however the basics are missing and the management put us off recommending this venue for a weekend away or an event.

We booked through ***********, and received the generic booking confirmation from them. Arrived at 6.15pm, no staff onsite anywhere. We found a poster on the door as follows: “Our check in time is between 3pm and 6pm as you were informed in your confirmation email. As we are not a hotel we do not have staff here 24/7. 1 of our staff member will be here at 10pm and will be able to help you to check in. Sorry for the inconvenience. The General Manager of Markree Courtyard”. Went back and checked confirmation email and the website. Didn’t say anything like above. Did say check in is between 3pm and 6pm (buried in a long generic t’s & c’s email) but 100% didn’t say anywhere the information you receive, per above, when you actually turn up i.e. that you will have to wait nearly 4 hours until a member of staff turns up onsite and gives you a key to your room for what’s left of the evening. As it turns out, we weren’t alone in not miraculously deciphering the unclear and unexplained consequences hidden in the long, generic confirmation email. There were 5 other bookings (15 people in total), some with tired children after their day seeing the local sights, in the exact same boat and wondering who to contact and what to do. We would now all apparently, have to wait around for 4 hours. They were similarly unaware of the unexplained (non) reception arrangements and consequences if you arrived a few minutes past 6pm. One of the waiting couples had rung ahead at 4.30pm to say they would be arriving a few minutes late (they arrived 6.10pm), but nobody answered the phone, so they were also going to have to wait the four hours until 10pm like the rest of us. The 5 bookings represent 50% of the total bookings for The Markree Courtyard that evening (there’s 10 rooms in total) Given the circumstances and the widespread confusion, I rang up the phone number and spoke to The General Manager to see if anything could be done. Totally wasn’t interested. Couldn’t get off the call fast enough. Clear from his tone and indifference that i was stupid and situation not his problem. He made it very clear that he would not be shifting from where he was to do anything about it. No alternative arrangements in place for these circumstances and kept saying “it’s all very clear in the email, see you at 10pm”. Tried to tell (gaslight) me this had never happened before and that i was an outlier. That’s strange I said as there are another 10-12 people waiting here right now in the exact same position. We subsequently found out from one of the other waiting couples (who peaked into a nearby hotel) that this situation with arriving guests having nobody to give them their room keys between 6pm and 10pm has happened on multiple occasions, so we weren’t the first. When he showed up to 15 tired, disappointed and irate customers at 10pm he offered what seemed to be a sarcastic and inexplicably enthusiastic“good evening everyone!” greeting. Bizarre. It then too