Dear Guest,

Dear Guest,

We miss you! Our cottage is empty and our B&B rooms are silent. I know many of you booked to stay with us in March, hedging your bets that just perhaps a miracle might happen after March 5^th and we could welcome you to stay. Your messages were heartfelt, full of longing to escape your homes, your gardens, your town or city. We hear you. We long too for the welcome sound of arrivals to our business. We gaze at the long stretch of emptiness on our booking calendars. We feel your frustration when you have to cancel or worse, try to reschedule, only to find that other Irish citizens are also hedging their bets, booking us up for the summer, all anticipating freedom to run away for a short break.

We can’t wait to open our doors. To share all of the wonderful things that there are to do here in this beautiful part of the world. To offer some respite and TLC to try to make up for the trying times you have been experiencing.

Please bear in mind, that panic you feel when you hear a politician or commentator on the radio mention a mid-summer re-opening or late summer, or whatever else they are predicting, we feel it too. Our lives have been one long uncertain, holding of breath, waiting for the next announcement for a while now. We live in the realm of “what if”, we don’t know what this summer will hold. We have no idea of when things will be back to normal, or even semi-normal. When you call looking for reassurance that you will get to have a holiday this year, we like everyone else, can offer no guarantees. We do know that when you can travel, we will be thrilled to welcome you and delighted to open our businesses again. To those of you who ask for a discount “considering the times we are in”, please understand that those times apply to us too. These lockdowns mean that we are also struggling to survive. Many of us are small family run businesses. Right now, we are living on the edge, wondering what will happen next. Many of the hospitality workers I know are doing that pivot thing that all self-employed people know so well. Some are becoming master candle makers, some have gone back to college to retrain, some are couriers, some teach English late into the night online. Many of us are looking at how we can add value to our business, to use this “pause” to assess and build our offering. We know and understand that it takes grit, resilience and quite frankly, courage to work in the tourism industry.

Throughout the many towns and villages of Ireland are family run operations that have often been in business for generations. They’ve survived recessions and all of the ups and downs that happen throughout life, and now they are trying really hard to survive a global pandemic.

So dear Guest, once we can all open properly and you begin to arrive to our self-catering cottages, B&Bs and family-run hotels, we will do our best to meet and exceed your expectations. We are busy preparing, planning and thinking of how we can make your holidays as wonderful as we can. We would ask simply for some understanding, patience and even kindness “considering the times we are in”, because as I think we are all beginning to realise, more and more, we are indeed, all in this together. We are ready and waiting and can’t wait to have you back!

Our next post will offer some tips and ideas on how you can make the very most of this much anticipated break away…stay tuned!