Seagull Cottage B&B

We were so excited for our stay here. Sadly the location on trip is very misleading. This is not in Dingle, in fact it is over two hours away. We would like a refund due to the misleading information but can’t seem to figure out how to apply for one. I contacted the owners and let the know the situation but they didn’t offer a refund of a solution.

Very unwelcoming. The host wasn't there when we checked in, and we saw him briefly in the morning just to hand the keys back. My little sister who was staying at another place just down the road came inside in the morning and the host, even though he saw us, didn't say anything. As soon as we left he sent a message demanding 35 euro and immediately jumped to reporting us to the police because she came on the property. Absolutely absurd.

Arrived after sunset so didn’t get to enjoy the place to its fullest. However, great option for self check in, spacious car park, clean and modern interior. Room laid out well, comfy bed, cosy feel, exceptionally clean. Andy was very accommodating in the brief time that we spoke to him. With it being a house you could hear other guests pottering around, but generally this wasn’t a problem. Beautiful views of the countryside in the morning, but the highlight was the epic stargazing possible at night due to the lack of light pollution.

Lovely home of hosts Andy and Caroline. Very clean and well kept, if not a bit on the minimalist side. We liked it. Extremely quiet and beautiful countryside, in sight of the Kerry Cliffs, and a short walk or drive to the Portage waterfront and pubs. Our room was the last available and is a first floor room with a separate, private bathroom. You need to go out in the hall to use the bathroom. Not ideal, but we were OK with it. It seems the other rooms have the bathroom within. Reasonable price for a nice room, comfy bed and friendly hosts. Portmagee is worth a visit! The only negative was all the interior fire doors with very heavy self-closers, perhaps required by fire code, but nevertheless, unpleasant enough to comment about.

PROS: Exceptionally clean. Everything seemed relatively new. Beautifully quiet. Nice warm room. Bedding, décor, and furnishings were all quite nice and well selected. CONS: No lounge or living room type common area for guests to sit comfortably with only one basic office chair provided in the room. Quite simply, it was too sparsely furnished and appointed. Wi-fi was very sketchy (despite numerous reboots) and even stopped working completely for quite some time. The owner since claimed to have “super fast Wi-Fi” and that we should have addressed Wi-fi issues on-site, but we had no idea how to find the proprietor once he handed us the room keys and then basically disappeared for the duration of our stay (behind one of the closed doors on the property?). In short, we could not address the Wi-fi issues as he suggested. There were no TV’s in the entire property, which the owner stated was done on purpose to provide a “quiet and peaceful experience”. That seems nice enough, but without reliable working Wi-fi, the property became an isolated entrapment while we stared at the walls for several hours. A tomb is a “quiet and peaceful experience”, but that doesn’t necessarily make it pleasant. By normal Irish standards for hotels, 4:30 pm check-in and 10:30 am check-out times were quite late and early respectively, which is not common for Ireland as the owner subsequently claimed. We stayed in more than 30 hotels in Ireland and not one of them provided so little overall time. The typical turnaround from check-in to check-out (in all of 2100 miles we traveled around Ireland) was about an hour longer, one way or another. Responding to this, the owner quite rudely wrote (his quote) that we “would need to familiarise yourself with the basics before travelling somewhere”. To that, I can only say we are traveling 110 days this year in 16 different countries and have traveled to about 40 countries before. We plan our journeys exhaustively. I suggest rather than provide insulting remarks about our travel abilities, which are highly tuned and time-tested, perhaps this property’s management should listen to useful customer input about things which were not customary and inferior to competitors. Breakfast was an additional charge which rather goes against the ENTIRE notion of calling oneself a B&B. In retrospect, on closer examination, I concede the advertised rates for the property apparently included a non-breakfast option, but it’s important to note that is not always completely obvious when viewing typical hotel booking sites. Addressing this, the owner wrote that “it looks like you had no idea what you were booking and were not looking at the location or anything at that time”. Overlooking the blatant rudeness of that comment, our situation was actually quite the contrary, and we were keenly familiar with the location, having already spent a total of 25 days traversing the entire west coast of Ireland throughout both rural and urban areas before

Nice enough, clean, though basic B&B. It seems to be newer and possibly a work in progress. Our rooms were clean and spacious. One had a bathroom ensuite and the other was shared (it was the handicap bathroom that was either that was all that was left when we booked or we made an error). Rooms had complimentary water and snacks. The location worked for us on our drive through. It was a short distance from the Kerry Cliffs and the town. However, I don't think it would be a place we'd just hang out and lounge in for a day as (noted in other reviews) there isn't much of a commons area and the rooms are really just meant for sleeping.

PROS: Exceptionally clean. Everything seemed relatively new. Beautifully quiet. Nice warm room. Bedding, décor, and furnishings were all quite nice and well selected. CONS: No lounge or living room type common area for guests to sit comfortably with only one office chair provided in the room. Wi-fi was pretty sketchy and even stopped working completely for quite some time. No TV’s in the entire property. By usual Irish standards for hotels, 4:30 pm check-in and 10:30 am check-out times were a little late and early, respectively. Breakfast was an additional charge which rather goes against the ENTIRE notion of calling oneself a B&B. SUMMARY: B&B’s are usually individual unique properties and they might sometimes lack certain creature comforts but they make up for that by perhaps having a small bar, a nice common area/lounge, or similar things. This property needs to add something like that to make it a little more comfortable.

We only stayed at the Seagull Cottage for one night during our travels but enjoyed our stay. We texted Andy, the host, when we landed at Kerry Airport. The drive from Kerry Airport took about an hour. Andy met us at the cottage and showed us to our room. There was a much appreciated Small Welcome Package with snacks and water bottles. There was also a folder with wifi info, local stores info, etc. The Room was clean and tidy. Bathroom was private. We didn’t opt in for the breakfast in the morning but decided to visit local restaurants and stores instead. Great B&B if you‘re visiting the Skellig area!

Nice simple room-clean and comfortable. Not used to the separate bathroom but it was ok. Andy and Caroline were gracious hosts and provided all the needed information to check-in and stay at his place. Breakfast was delicious with good selections.