Back when we first started planning our vacation to Ireland, I was torn over whether we went to the Ring of Kerry or Connemara. And then I managed to convince a certain someone that we could leave the cat home alone for more than a week and I planned a trip that had us going BOTH places, staying in Killarney at the Cahernane House and Cong at Ashford Castle. All was well with the world.
Or was it?
Today I received a very unofficial looking email from a woman that works at Hotels.com telling me that my reservation at Cahernane House Hotel had been canceled by request of the hotel and I'd been rebooked at The Brehorn Killarney. There was no logo and worst of all, I didn't book through Hotels.com. During my 7 years in tech PR, I've had a lot of information security clients so my first thought was PHISHING SCAM. My second thought was, "ha ha, you don't know that I know what you're up to."
And then I called the 1.800 customer service number at Hotels.com because what if I had accidentally booked with that site before I booked with Expedia and I had TWO reservations for Cahernane House in my name and dear lord, this whole thing could be a giant cluster on my part and please, please, please do not let my credit card get charged for a hotel twice for the same stay.
I spoke with a very nice lady at the customer service number who let me know (1) Hotels.com and Expedia are owned by the same company and (2) they didn't have any information about MY reservation using the confirmation number supplied in the email (it was for someone with a very Latin sounding name instead). I told her I was worried because my trip is IN DAYS and I needed to know if I had a hotel or not because if I got to Killarney only to find out I didn't, I might want to cut a bitch. She looked up our Expedia itinerary number and then put me on hold for several minutes. She came back on the line to confirm my reservation was canceled but she could re-book me at the Brehorn. Bleh.
Nothing against the Brehorn, really. I'm sure it's a perfectly fine hotel. In fact, it's ranked #4 on TripAdvisor for hotels in Killarney. But it's brand new. And it looks like a Marriott. A Marriott in any city in America. Not exactly what I fly all the way around the world for, you know? So I logged into our Expedia itinerary and canceled the whole damn thing myself. And then I went into crisis mode. This is why you always plan. You have Plan A, Plan B for when Plan A goes to shit and Plan C when some asshole tries to drive you nuts by not letting Plan B work out for you either. I'm damn good at imagining just about every possible scenario and then creating a plan for how to deal with it should my imagination actually meet reality. I have plans for plans, I am that much of a freak.
So, what did I do? I went back to my del.ici.ous links and my bookmarks and I found all the hotels that at one point or another in this entire multi-year planning process I had wanted to stay at. And then I found out where they were located in relation to Killarney and then I did even more searches to find which places had availability so late in the game and from there evaluated what I was willing to pay and for what level of hotel - $481/night for Sheen Falls Lodge? Not so much my friend. $179/night for the Lake Hotel? Maybe, now we're getting somewhere. And then I saw it.
Ballyseede Castle in Tralee had a superior room WITH breakfast (this is key) for $167/night + taxes. The reviews on Expedia were mixed, and then I read them. Apparently someone was upset the hotel booked a wedding the same weekend they were there. The nerve of them! What kind of asshole wants their wedding at an ancient Irish castle and what kind of hotel doesn't do weddings? So yeah, we booked it. Now we're staying in 3 castles during our trip to Ireland. Those damn Earls of Pembroke at Cahernane are just going to have to do without us.
