Ramada Hotel Ballina - bad experience

padette

I am writing this review for a number of reasons –

1. Warn couples looking for a wedding venue to be VERY careful if you are considering the Ramada in Ballina
2. to vent my own pure frustration at the Management’s lack of courtesy and respect for my sister when planning her wedding

The story is as follows. My sister and her Fiancé booked the Ramada hotel as their venue last year in October. They ended up paying a deposit of €2,000, which was well over the minimum requirement of €600 as they wanted to pay off some of the total value in advance. They were delighted with their choice until they attended her Fiancé’s Christmas party in the Ramada in December. The service was appalling and those she knew attending the party laughed at the service (This was only the tip of the iceberg really – Fawlty towers would win Customer service awards in comparison to the service that night. These are the words of others, not my sister incase you think I am biased) She was so upset that night that she spoke to the Event manager on duty and again the following morning. They decided immediately to cancel the wedding in the Ramada as they felt they could not depend on the service and they were not about to jeopardise their special day on a promise from the Manager that had supervised the previous night).

This is really where the drama and months of empty promises began as the Event manager from that night said that there would be no problem in getting their deposit back. They met with him and the Assistant Manager on another occasion and they advised them that they would have to get sign off from the Director(s) to pay back the deposit but that they could see no problem. This line has been used numerous times when calls were answered by Management. I (Bride’s sister) then took over the conversations as my sister was getting too stressed out. I was promised that the situation would be reviewed at a Director’s meeting on February 18th. The General Manager was courteous and answered my calls but then passed me over to the Director – Eugene Cawley. Mr Cawley refused to answer my calls for 2 days and when I eventually got through to him, he acted as if he had no idea what I was on about and was extremely rude and dismissive on the phone, not what you would expect from a Director of a Ramada hotel.

In summary, he refused to return any of my sister’s deposit, as they cancelled within 12 months of the wedding. They are not willing to return the extra €1,400 that they paid to the hotel.

I am not writing this in the hope that I will get my sister’s money back, I feel it is necessary to let others out there know what they are dealing with.

Shiminay

That's fierce slack! Have you asked the folks on the legal discussion board what your rights are etc?

padette

No, it is my first time to use this site. A friend said that I should post a blog here to warn people as we have pretty much given up on getting any money from them.

Shiminay

Well, this isn't as much a blog as a discussion board, but your post is welcome none-the-less.

Have a look here for the legal discussion - don't forget to search older topics to see if this sort of thing's popped up before (I'm sure it has).

I'm interested because I work in Hotels myself (in Dublin).

padette

Really appreciate your advice. I have submitted the detail as I couldn't find a similar discussion in the 1st 10 pages and following a search.

themadchef

That's really terrible. Well in advance of 12 months so se should have got her money back imo.

What do they expect to gain from this? So much of the wedding business goes on word of mouth so they will lose out in the long run. No good to your sister i know.


If it was me i would take them to court for it, hit them for distress too. How do you run a business like that!!!.


If you find out the legalities of it will you let us know the outcome please.

Best of luck

Gun_Slinger

Shockin alright! I would also post this on weddingsonline or some of the millions of weddings websites out there. Im sure there will be more of an impact there. Not sure of the websites urls but my missus spent day and night on them before we got married!

Best of luck to your sister, I know its not much help but at least they can now look forward to a decent wedding somewhere else and if they lose the 1400 it might be worth it in the end.

artieanna

Thats disgraceful, to take 1400 euros of hard earned cash and the hassle on top of it.

You should definitly look into it and try to get that money back....

mad m

Drop Joe Duffy or Gerry Ryan an email or something....?

artieanna

mad m wrote: »

Drop Joe Duffy or Gerry Ryan an email or something....?

give Tommy marren on mid west radio a call, they may even help you sort it out;)

An Fear Aniar

You're not very specific about what was wrong with the service. Maybe you're just a whinger?

Maybe you just need to get some perspective:

http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/hunger-facts-international.html

http://www.stopthehunger.com/

http://www.worldometers.info/


I've worked in hotels in the past and I seen people coming in demanding to be treated with some sort of reverence that they've neither earned nor deserved. Are you one of these people?

You need to be more specific about what was wrong with the service and why you think you deserve a refund.





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Shiminay

Are you forgetting something? It's the SERVICE industry, if a punter feels they're not getting the service they think, something has definitely gone wrong regardless of what's actually happened. Posting links to all that sort of stuff isn't helping and has nothing to do with any of this.

Right now, as explained, they've been given the run-around by the management (and directors it seems) of the hotel and that is completely unacceptable and speaks volumes for the kind of business men and women are running the place.

Calling someone a whinger when they're actually trying to spread the word of how horrific this hotel shows that you're oblivious to what working in the service industry entails.

An Fear Aniar

Kharn wrote: »

Posting links to all that sort of stuff isn't helping and has nothing to do with any of this.

Ya don't think so?



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Shiminay

Lemmie guess, you're one of those anti-capitalism, anti-consumerism, anti-hard work types who thinks that people should be outraged that there's poverty everywhere and frivolous spending of money is worse than not helping the poor?

I don't necessarily disagree with you, having worked at well in excess of 1000 weddings in my time, I think it's horrific the money that gets pissed away at these things and I can't understand why any couple would want to start off their married life with a bill for €30,000 +

However, this isn't the time or the place to discuss such things, take it to the Humanities board.

Culchie

I'm not saying OP isn't genuine, but I don't like the fact that their only posts on boards.ie is concerned with dissing the Ramada hotel.

I own a business, so maybe I'm being a little biased/overprotective, but still this could just as easily be a rival B&B or hotel in the area spreading tripe about the Ramada....I've had business dealings with them and found them as good as bad as the next business.

Again, I'm not necessarily casting doubt on OP (how would I know if it's true or not) .... but first time posters on boards dissing businesses always make my radar 'rabbit ears' twitch.

Not taking sides here or anything as tbh I couldn't care less if it was to burn down tomorrow, but I live in Ballina and all I've heard are bad things concerning the Ramada. The service is supposed to be horrible and the place has been refered to as Fawlty Towers by a number of people I know.

An Fear Aniar

Kharn wrote: »

Lemmie guess, you're one of those anti-capitalism, anti-consumerism, anti-hard work types who thinks that people should be outraged that there's poverty everywhere and frivolous spending of money is worse than not helping the poor?

No, I'm a taxpayer.

I just have very little sympathy when people complain about service in hotels.

Ramada's a big international brand and I very much doubt that their service could be so shabby as alleged (especially since no details at all have been given).

I think the Mod could be right - a smear campaign.


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4bugny

An Fear Aniar wrote: »

You're not very specific about what was wrong with the service. Maybe you're just a whinger?

Maybe you just need to get some perspective:

http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/hunger-facts-international.html

http://www.stopthehunger.com/

http://www.worldometers.info/


I've worked in hotels in the past and I seen people coming in demanding to be treated with some sort of reverence that they've neither earned nor deserved. Are you one of these people?

You need to be more specific about what was wrong with the service and why you think you deserve a refund.





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How can you you say they've neither earned nor deserved it? They're paying enough for it.

de5p0i1er

Thanks for the warning.

An Fear Aniar

4bugny wrote: »

How can you you say they've neither earned nor deserved it? They're paying enough for it.

The complaint was about "the Management’s lack of courtesy and respect".

Sounds like bull**** to me.

A smear campaign.

Ramada is a professional organisation - not some seaside B&B.



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Shiminay

Well, if you're so unhappy, report the post and let the mod decide...

Jools 64

To OP...don't hold your breath, the Directors don't pay their bills, or their staff, nor do they attend court when summoned, nor do they co-operate with the Labour Courts....

I worked there, I know, the place doesn't need to be 'smeared' it's reputation is built on the guest's experiences. :eek:

The Directors are builders, out for a quick buck, (23% tax incentive, and if it fails, re-open as a nursing home), they are trading under the Ramada flag on sufference, they want to run it themselves but are tied to a very costly contract, and know nothing about the running a succesful Hotel, so they employ cheap muppets to stand in the front line.

Ramada have very little to do with the property. The GM is a contractor, employed by the Directors, not by Wyndam (owners of Ramada), and will not refund anything, unless it is over his dead body.:rolleyes:

In short, it is a lovely building, and could have been a very busy, succesful venue if it had been treated correctly in the beginning.

Shame, I hope the OP has some luck in getting their money back, failing that, they could always take John Fallon and Eugene Cawley to the small claims court, but as I say, they don't take any notice of summons.

Ah Ballina....makes Cork look like Paradise!:D

red4blood

i wouldn't doubt the op, im not surprised it wasn't posted here before. thats an awful way to be treated in fairness, maybe if she could get talking to someone from ramada instead of the builder/"director" who still thinks hes on site with his horse and his six shot in his holster. jools is also spot on and knows what the place is like. word of mouth carrys a long way and op is only warning any other victims of these boys. im ballina born bred and rared,and things i heard and know about this place is every bit as bad and worse as op story. there are plenty of other hotels around and other ramadas worldwide but as for ramada ballina you have been warned.

hope it all works out for you, but imo you wouldn't get blood from a stone. look into the legal side of it.

1987dob

I realise this is my first post but i stumbled across this conversation and just HAVE to put my point across. I work in the ramada in ballina since it opened back in may07. I would describe myself as a more than efficent worker here. When we first opened we had the biggest waste of space of managers and if that wasnt bad enouph we had an even worse chef.This has understandably ruined our reputation for the forseeable future. However since Halloween things have drastically improved. with relation to the wedding couple there i can only say sorry about the service but in our defence you may have the best workforce in place but occasionally you may have an off day. I know this wont make up for it but all the staff in the ramada are deeply sorry about this. While i dont agree with our management taking that money i can only say that from what i hear there is no sign of your money being returned soon. As for the rest of you i urge you all to give us all a second chance as right now we have an excellant product here and all we need is for people to get over their negative views on our directors and come view and try our workplace without any bias views. I assure you you will all be pleasantly suprised. P.S. The managers which dealt with this couple has since been sacked for incompetance.

Culchie

1987dob wrote: »

However since Halloween things have drastically improved

It may be because of this I stated what my experience of the Ramada (was pretty good) as 2008 is all that I dealt with them.. however, looks like theres alot of bridges to build with customers.

mr.miagi

test

Jools 64

1987dob wrote: »

I realise this is my first post but i stumbled across this conversation and just HAVE to put my point across. I work in the ramada in ballina since it opened back in may07. I would describe myself as a more than efficent worker here. When we first opened we had the biggest waste of space of managers and if that wasnt bad enouph we had an even worse chef.This has understandably ruined our reputation for the forseeable future. However since Halloween things have drastically improved. with relation to the wedding couple there i can only say sorry about the service but in our defence you may have the best workforce in place but occasionally you may have an off day. I know this wont make up for it but all the staff in the ramada are deeply sorry about this. While i dont agree with our management taking that money i can only say that from what i hear there is no sign of your money being returned soon. As for the rest of you i urge you all to give us all a second chance as right now we have an excellant product here and all we need is for people to get over their negative views on our directors and come view and try our workplace without any bias views. I assure you you will all be pleasantly suprised. P.S. The managers which dealt with this couple has since been sacked for incompetance.

It would seem that we are ex-co workers.

I have no intention of getting into a squabble with someone who I may or may not have worked with, I have better things to do with my time, but I really cannot let this go unanswered.

Firstly, I think it is admirable of you '1987 dob' to defend your place of work, and I wish you every success with your career, however, I feel that I ought to warn you that to come onto a public board and make statements such as yours about managers and chefs ruining your hotels' reputation is not only absurd, it is also libelous.

There was a mention of a smear campaign by a previous poster, but as I have said, the Hotel needs no assistance with that, but there does seem to be a campaign of blame by staff with internet access against the origional Management.

The Management team that were employed in Dec 06 by Ramada in Ireland, were not only very experienced, but extremely competent in their positions. They were employed on the basis that they would be allowed to run the Hotel under the Ramada brand, with the support of Head Office.

Under tremendous interference and intimidation by the owners, this was impossible to carry out effectively, and the cracks began to get wider, until it came to a point where Ramada decided that they were not going to give their support to a property whose owners were hell bent on alienating anyone who didn't agree with them. The owners have tied themselves into a branding contract, which allows them to use the sineage they have rather shoddily erected, but they are Ramada in name only.

The problem is and always has been with the owners, you know it better than anyone as you are still employed by them.

The Manager who was 'sacked' by the way, was on a (very expensive) 12 month contract.

I wish no ill of anyone who works at the Manor House, but I feel it is vital to highlight the pitfalls with properties such as these, they offer neither a professional service or value for money, and if boards such as these can warn the public then someones' wedding day may be saved!!