Electricity charges in holiday homes

Kalimah

This is a real bugbear of mine. We were trying to organise a holiday and due to lack of funds and expensive teenagers we decided that all we could afford was a house somewhere in Ireland. So off with me to the Dream Ireland and another couple of websites to check out prices. Any place with access to a pool is the bones of 1k for a week and you might get a smallish place on the coast near a beach for about €500. Not cheap by any means and there is not much reduction in price even though these places are not booked up by any means.
We noticed pretty much all of the places charge between €5 and €7 A DAY for ESB that you pay on departure. My last ESB bill was €140 which is nothing like even €5 a day. I have 3 teenagers and all that goes with them in power consumption.
It seems to me that this is yet another example of Rip Off Ireland. We booked a fantastic place in North England. 480 sterling for a week and 400 euros for the boat over. So we'll have some sort of holiday for 1k. Loads to do and a change of scenery.
The Irish tourist industry has no interest in keeping Irish people in Ireland for holidays. It's all aimed at a niche market of wealthy Americans and elderly continentals.

Welease

/shrug.. did you shop around (and it will depend on which weeks)?

We recently spend a week in Kilkee (June), 3 bed house 200 yds from the beach was 320 Euro for the week.. Leisure centre was less than 100 yards away, so full pool facilities available (15 Euro for 2 adults and 2 children for a day ticket, can come and go as you please).

There are plenty of places available for less than 1K in Ireland.

Edit - but I do agree on the electricity charges.. we did get charged 5 Euro a day which was excessive.. but at least the house came with cable TV, dishwashers, washing machines.. so it was nicely kitted out

Kalimah

June isn't too bad pricewise but our youngest is in primary school so June is not really a runner unless we take her out and the schools have moans about that. My brother did that and there was war!
I do agree that the facilities in these houses are usually up to a high standard. Pity we're very weather dependent in this country.

91011

the issue here is you wanted access to a pool - unless its attached to a hotel, then your unlikely to find them in great supply. A swimming pool costs thousands to operate to heath & safety standards.

If the rental is attached to the hotel, then they will price in you have use of all the hotel facilities.

In reality, I don't think you made any real effort - A quick trawl will see tons of high quality 3 bed holiday homes near beaches in Clare, Galway & Kerry for about €450 - €550 / week in mid august. Larger 4 beds are about €600 - €700.

Most seem to operate on a meter reading basis for esb.

www.selfcatering.ie www.irelandathome.com

whippet

I have been doing self catering in ireland for the last few years for at least a week each year ..... this year I headed to South West England / Cornwall direction and found the value (even taking the boat in to consideration) comparable with Ireland but the quality of accomadation on offer was much higher.

Kalimah

My point is adding on the ESB on top of the rental price. And the prices are not that cheap. Most of the places I've looked at still have availability in mid August but they still won't reduce price.

91011

Kalimah wrote: »

My point is adding on the ESB on top of the rental price. And the prices are not that cheap. Most of the places I've looked at still have availability in mid August but they still won't reduce price.

I thought this would be standard in nay holiday home anywhere as otherwise many people would just abuse it and leave lights & other things on 24hrs a day.

You'll probably find this will be the case in UK too.

As for prices - I can just go by what I saw on the net on Saturday for 14th August to 21st August dates.

You can also pay €3500 for a week to Doonbeg in 5star 3000sq ft lodge with all the trimmings attached, but most standard 3bed holiday homes in Clare, Galway & Mayo seemed to be priced online at €450 - €550 for that week, some larger ones at €600- €700.

p.s. Don't forget to fill to brim with petrol / diesel BEFORE taking ferry. - Its 20% - 30% more expensive in UK.

whippet

91011 wrote: »

You'll probably find this will be the case in UK too.
.

actually I didn't have any utilities surcharge in UK.

Kalimah

I've never ben charged utility charges in either the UK or the continent.

PS. Thanks for the tip re the petrol!

nicndec

This is an industry I'm fairly familiar with as I've spent a number of years working in it so let me try and enlighten you a little from the point of view of the accommodation provider.

I know first hand that there's savage value to be had, not just for "wealthy Americans and elderly continentals" but for anyone who's prepared to get off there derrière and make a few phone calls - we've adjusted our prices a number of times throughout the year and have noticed them same with our competitors but being perfectly honest using an agent and expecting them to get you 'a great deal' is nothing more than lazy - you might read below and try to understand why.

When YOU book through an agent, that agent charges us around 15% commission on the rate that you're paying them. So before you've hopped in the car for your week away we're down 15% on what you've paid. In addition, when you pay an agent, that agent (generally) doesn't remit your rental income to us until the end of the month that you stayed in. This has a negative effect on OUR cash flow (and not the agents) as we ultimately have to service you and your family during the course of your stay, but not get paid for it until after you've left - Imagine walking into a shoe shop, selecting your fave pair and heading off with them only to pop back and pay for them upto a month AFTER you've had them benefit from them.

There's no incentive whatsoever for accommodation providers to move on price or to offer favourable rates when guests are booking via a third party as it's coming out of our own pockets.

As for electricity charges or any other that are levied in relation to the provision of services, I don't see any problem with them as long as you were informed of them at the time of booking. You can buy branded beers, wines and spirits in the shops for next to nothing, do you whine about the resale value of it in bars and restaurants?

So what if the accommodation provider makes about € 1.75 per day 'profit' from your € 5.00 per day electricity charge (based on our actual figures), big deal - it doesn't even cover the cost of cleaning the place, disposing of your waste, replacing perishables or consumables (which might explain where some of the extra goes).

I'd love to hear exactly what your UK holiday will actually end up costing because you've already shelled out the bones of a grand (which apparently would be too expensive to stay here) to go somewhere with a similar climate. Now add to that the cost of fuel both ways, journey time, and wear and tear on the car to name but a few things.

As for a tourist industry not interested in keeping home-grown customers happy, I deal with hundreds of customers like you a week both over the phone and face to face and believe me with the current state of the highly competitive and over saturated industry that we're in we'd love to look after you the only problem is, when you guys stay at home you expect it all for nothing - some our self catering guests have the cheek to ask us for replacement toilet roll - you're self catering, wipe yer backside on your own toilet roll, you wouldn’t think twice about it if you were abroad (“oh but that’s different”, we hear!!!)

We run a 4* self catering complex, onsite Bar & Restaurant slap bang on the coast in a beautiful part of the country; plenty to see and do within 20 min radius. Our food and drink is as cheap as any pub in the county and ALL of our staff are locally living Irish nationals all earning above minimum wage. We very good at and very proud of what we do and how we do it and our current rates would’ve gotten say 5 of you some great accommodation at about € 19.50 per person per night. You’d be hard pressed to find a decent hostel with rates that keen.

So, as for the industry being a prime example of Rip-Off Ireland, I feel you’re as much to blame for not having gone out there to seek out your own discount; instead you want it handed to you by an agent who’s done all the hard work for you – common sense alone should tell you that you’ll get nothing for nothing.

Slasher

Kalimah wrote: »

Most of the places I've looked at still have availability in mid August but they still won't reduce price.

We're renting a house for two weeks in the South West this August. The weekly rent is 30% less than in 2008 (we didn't go there in 2009). We got this reduction by asking "Is there anything you can do on the rent?". They are not charging us extra for ESB this year.

nicndec

Slasher wrote: »

We're renting a house for two weeks in the South West this August. The weekly rent is 30% less than in 2008 (we didn't go there in 2009). We got this reduction by asking "Is there anything you can do on the rent?". They are not charging us extra for ESB this year.

So by the sound of things you contacted the holiday home owner directly and negotiated yourself.

30% is some chunk off though!!!

Slasher

nicndec wrote: »

So by the sound of things you contacted the holiday home owner directly and negotiated yourself.

30% is some chunk off though!!!

Nope. Made the booking through the agency.

whippet

nicndec ... I was reading your post with interest up until you went on your rant.

I have been staying self catering in ireland for at least a week of every of year since 2004. And this year was the first that I decided not to.

My reasons are as such:

Average price for a 'decent' 3 bed cottage in the south west of ireland at peak times was coming up to around about €600-700 for the week, plus utility charges.

When I say decent, this has a meaning, the vast quantity of self catering in ireland is furnished in the same manner as 2* self-catering apartments in spain if you get my drift.

For stg£400 I got a seven night deal in the beautiful cornwall, detached 3 bed riverside cottage. There was a shop, childrens play ground, full leisure centre, games room, free wifi, DVD library, BBQ and self contained gardens all onsite. On arrival we had everying supplied from toilet roll, washing up liquid, salt, pepper, milk, tea etc ... little basic essentials.

We chose an option for a full hamper at a cost of £40 on arrival which had everything to last us for at least two days (food wise) and some local beers.

I can say hand on heart, comparing like with like the quality of product was far superior to anything I could have expected with a similar priced place in ireland.

As for the cost of getting there, return ferry trip was about €120, petrol up and down was €100 (large engined car;)). I would generally spend about 60 quid return to cork on petrol.

While over there I would say that food, drink, visitor attractions and most other stuff was about 60% of the cost in ireland. Tell me where in Killarney could you get two adult meals, a childs meal, half bottle of wine and a pint for less than 20 quid.

Also, the weather in cornwall is better than anywhere in ireland, the beaches are generally better equiped for enjoying with family (as in facilities).

I am sorry for having to put it so bluntly to you but the over all product in ireland isn't up to scratch compared to the UK. Next year my self catering holiday will probably take me to either France or Channel Islands.

While I love the south west of ireland, I am not prepared to bow down to it's self glorified image when it isnt really all that.