To make a reservation

Simply check availability from our website or send us an enquiry from the cottage’s page or via our contact page. If we have the dates you require we ask you to reserve the accommodation with a non-refundable deposit by credit card. Unless otherwise agreed, the balance is payable 5 days prior to your arrival. This balance will be debited from the card used to make the reservation. No cottage will be made available until payment has been made in full. We will then forward you a confirmation by email with all the details relevant to your booking. No booking is confirmed until a confirmation has been sent. Your confirmed booking is made with Cottages for Couples Ltd.

Your property will be available from 4pm on the day of arrival until 11am on the day of departure. In certain circumstances we can arrange earlier occupancy, but this is by prior agreement only. There is no provision for a late checkout. Guests who do not respect the departure times may be charged at our discretion.

For stays of one week or longer, the balance of your rental is payable four weeks prior to the date of your arrival.

• All rates are euros and are inclusive of VAT
• Rates based on minimum 2 night stay based on two sharing.
• There is a MINIMUM 2-NIGHT STAY in all cottages at weekends and at all times in the treehouses with the following exceptions: i) where bookings fall to leave single nights available these can be booked. ii) where there is a block of 3 available nights, a single night can be booked but not the middle night.
• There is a minimum 2 night stay in all cottages for all dates in July, August and September with the same exceptions as above.
• For one night stays there is a supplement of €30 to cover the cost of linen and cleaning which is usually spread over 2 nights.
• Rates may change during public holidays, school holidays and certain prime dates.

The following are included in our rates:

• Cottage rental on days as agreed
• All electricity, hot water and central heating
• Linen and towels
• Weekly change of linen/towels.

Privacy Statement

Effective Date: May 2018

This Privacy Statement applies to www.cottagesforcouples.ie owned and operated by Cottages for Couples Ltd.. This Privacy Statement describes how we collect and use the information, which may include personal data, you provide on our web site: www.cottagesforcouples.ie or by phone. It also describes the choices available to you regarding our use of your personal data and how you can access and update this data.

Data Collection

The types of personal data that we collect include:

Your first name, last name, email address, phone number and the first name of your partner for our welcome board.

Credit card details (type of card, credit card number, name on card, expiration date and security code and billing address where necessary);

Guest stay data, including name of cottage, date of arrival and departure and any special requests made.

You may always choose what personal data (if any) you wish to provide to us. If you choose not to provide certain details, however, some of your transactions with us may be impacted.

Processing Purposes

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

A. Reservations and enquiries: We use your personal data to complete and administer your reservation and/or to respond to an enquiry made by you.

B. Customer service: We use your personal data to provide customer service.

C. Guest reviews: We may use your contact data to invite you by email to write a guest review after your stay. This can help other travellers to choose the accommodation that suits them best. If you submit a guest review, your review may be published on our website.

D. Marketing activities: We also use your data for marketing activities, as permitted by law. If we use your personal data for direct marketing purposes, such as commercial newsletters and marketing communications on new products and services or other offers which we think may be of interest to you this will only be as a result of you having given your consent to receive these by asking to be placed on our mailing list.

E. Other communications: There may be other times when we get in touch by email, by post, by phone or by texting you, depending on the contact data you share with us. There could be a number of reasons for this:

a. We may need to respond to and handle requests you have made.
b. If you have not finalised a enquiry online, we may email you a reminder to continue with your enquiry. We believe that this additional service is useful to you because it allows you to carry on with a reservation without having to search for the accommodation again or fill in all the reservation details from scratch.
c. When you use our services, we may send you a questionnaire or invite you to provide a review about your experience with our website. We believe that this additional service is useful to you and to us as we will be able to improve our website based on your feedback.

d. We may need to contact you in relation to your arrival time or inform you of any circumstance that may affect your booking.

F. Analytics, improvements and research: We use personal data to conduct research and analysis. We may involve a third party to do this on our behalf. We may share or disclose the results of such research, including to third-parties, in anonymous, aggregated form. We use your personal data for analytical purposes, to improve our services, to enhance the user experience, and to improve the functionality and quality of our online services.

G. Security, fraud detection and prevention: We use the information, which may include personal data, in order to prevent fraud and other illegal or infringing activities. We also use this information to investigate and detect fraud. We can use personal data for risk assessment and security purposes, including the authentication of users. For these purposes, personal data may be shared with third parties, such as law enforcement authorities as permitted by applicable law and external advisors.

H. Legal and compliance: In certain cases, we need to use the information provided, which may include personal data, to handle and resolve legal disputes or complaints, for regulatory investigations and compliance, or to enforce agreement(s) or to comply with lawful requests from law enforcement insofar as it is required by law.

If we use automated means to process personal data which produces legal effects or significantly affects you, we will implement suitable measures to safeguard your rights and freedoms, including the right to obtain human intervention.

Legal Bases

In view of purposes A and B we rely on the performance of a contract: The use of your data may be necessary to perform the contract that you have with us. For example, if you use our services to make an reservation, we will use your data to carry out our obligation to complete and administer that reservation under the contract that we have with you.

In view of purposes C-H, we rely on its legitimate interests: We use your data for our legitimate interests, such as providing you with the best appropriate content for the website, emails and newsletters, to improve and promote our products and services and the content on our website, and for administrative, fraud detection and legal purposes. When using personal data to serve our legitimate interests, we will always balance your rights and interests in the protection of your information against our rights and interests.

In respect of purpose H, we also rely, where applicable, on our obligation to comply with applicable law.

Where needed under applicable law, we will obtain your consent prior to processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes.

If needed in accordance with applicable law, we will ask your consent. You can withdraw your consent anytime by contacting us at the email address at the end of this Privacy Statement.

If you wish to enquire about your data held or wish to have your data removed from our system please contact the data controller at info@cottagesforcouples.ie.

Cancellation Policy & Charges for Damage/Misuse

In all of our properties we adopt the same cancellation policy. We feel it is important to make guests aware of their liabilities in the event of having to cancel a pre-booked stay. When making a booking, we require a non-refundable deposit to be paid by credit or debit card. No booking is accepted without a deposit. All cancellations must be made in writing including by email and you will receive confirmation that your cancellation has been received. We do not accept cancellations by phone.

As a small business we are particularly vulnerable to guests who cancel close to the day of their arrival or curtail their stay for whatever reason and so we advise all guests to avail of travel insurance which includes cancellation cover (see below for links). If a guest cancels more than four weeks in advance of their arrival date, we reserve the right to retain the booking deposit. If a guest cancels less than four weeks in advance of their arrival or curtails their stay for whatever reason, we reserve the right to charge the full price of the booking. In this event where we have enough time to replace the booking with an alternative, revenue earned will be used to offset some, or all, of the cancellation charges (less any ancillary costs).  As soon as we receive confirmation of a cancellation we use all the tools at our disposal to replace a cancelled booking to offset cancellation charges. These include access to our waitlist as well as access to our database of more than 60,000 subscribers to our website and Facebook. We levy a charge of €30 for access to this database and administration to secure a replacement booking. Any cancellation charges will be debited from the card used to make the booking. We will allow the guest to use any balance, after charges have been deducted, towards a future stay without time limit. In practice this means that usually, but not always, our guests do not incur significant cancellation charges. We reserve the right to cancel any booking when circumstances beyond our control render the cottages unavailable (such as flood, inclement weather, lack of power, strikes, pestilence, disease etc). In these cases, the guest is able to re-schedule their booked dates using the deposit paid, without time limit. We also reserve the right to cancel any booking, at any time at our discretion and in this event our liabilities are limited to a full refund of any monies paid. If guests do not accept these terms and conditions they are able to cancel their booking within 24 hours of sending a confirmation without incurring penalties. Failure to do so implies acceptance of these conditions.

Please note that in certain circumstances, particularly in respect of the launch of a new project, guests cannot cancel an existing booking to switch to a new property.

If a guest does not arrive by 18.00 we always endeavour to contact the guest. If a guest is not contactable and has not arrived by 18.00 we reserve the right to treat the booking as a cancellation and cancellation charges apply. Any outstanding balance will be debited from the card used to make the booking.

We always suggest guests take out travel insurance which includes cancellation cover and since this costs from as little as €12 for a short break, we think it is worthwhile. Here is a link to help you:

• 123.ie

We don’t recommend any company in particular but this is just one example.

You’ll find plenty of others on the internet…

Security Deposit

A security deposit is required.  If you have paid a deposit by Laser or credit card, this card will be used as a guarantee against damage or if the cottage is left in an unsatisfactory condition. If the cottage requires extra cleaning a charge of €50 is applicable. Any damage or misuse of facilities that may lead to loss of revenue will also be charged at cost of repair, replacement or revenue lost. We also reserve the right to charge a call-out fee at our discretion if corrective measures are necessary due to misuse or carelessness by you, the guest. We expect our guests to behave in a manner that shows respect to other guests and neighbours. Any unacceptable behaviour may lead to a deduction/forfeit of the security deposit if compensation is payable to other guests affected by such unacceptable behaviour or if complaints are received from neighbours. If you have not paid a deposit by card then a deposit of €200 in cash is payable on arrival. This will be returned to you after our housekeeper has inspected the property on your departure. If guests do not accept these terms and conditions they are able to cancel their booking within 24hours of sending a confirmation without incurring penalties. Failure to do so implies acceptance of these conditions.

Newbridge Courtesy Deposit

Our accommodation at Newbridge is the closest accommodation to the town of Skibbereen. Consequently, we have neighbours living close by. We expect our guests to respect these neighbours and other guests. ALL accommodation at Newbridge carries a €50 refundable courtesy deposit to ensure our neighbours and other guests are treated with respect.   In the event of any complaints made to us regarding unacceptable behaviour this deposit will be forfeited. You will find notices at Newbridge reminding you of your obligations.

Gift Vouchers

If you are using a Gift Voucher to pay for some, or all, of your stay we still require a booking deposit, the amount being dependent on the length of stay. This deposit will be refunded to your card (minus any balance due) upon presentation of the voucher at check in. Vouchers may be used as full or part payment and are valid for use for 5 years from the date of booking. Vouchers must be declared at time of booking and once purchased are non-refundable.

Xmas Gift Vouchers – win a 2 night break

For our winter promotion, the first 50 people buying a gift voucher will be put into a draw for a free 2 night stay. The stay will be from Sunday-Thursday (excluding public holidays and is not applicable to treehouses). The winner will be announced on Instagram

Couples Experiences

All Couples Experiences are operated independently of Cottages for Couples and booked through each independent operator. Cottages for Couples accepts no liability for any loss, damage, injury incurred whilst participating in any Couples Experience. Please note that some Couples Experiences are weather dependent and may be liable to cancellation. All couples experiences are subject to the terms and conditions of the relevant operator. Accommodation booked through Cottages for Couples is subject to the cancellation conditions shown above. Cancellation of a couples experience will not be accepted as a reason to cancel accommodation booked separately through Cottages for Couples.

Housekeeping issues

All cottages are cleaned and inspected prior to each arrival. Our staff are only human and therefore we accept that on rare occasions something might have been missed or overlooked. If this is the case, the renter must inform us without delay so that this can be remedied. Failure to do this implies complete satisfaction with the cottage. All our cottages are situated in rural locations and we are proactive in ensuring that any wildlife (spiders, flies, slugs, mice, bats and so on) remain outside of the cottages. On very rare occasions one of the above may get past our defences and whilst these are not harmful, we accept that some guests may have phobias regarding such issues. If this applies to you we respectfully suggest that you do not book one of our cottages.

Pets

We do not allow pets in any of our cottages. If pets are taken into any of our cottages we reserve the right to levy a cleaning charge, the amount of which, is at our discretion.

Bat Conservation*

During the months of July, August and September, the Irish bat (known as the pipistrelle) arrives on the scene. These months are what is termed the ‘maternal’ time for bats when the females give birth to a single baby. These babies take about 3 months before they are able to fly and then, usually, the bats move on to a place for hibernation.  You will rarely, if ever, see a bat during daylight hours. They usually come out after dusk to hunt for insects such as midges which is their staple diet. A single bat can consume over 3000 insects in a single night so they are doing us a favour.

A large number of our guests live in urban areas such as Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Galway and are not used to experiencing bats at night so let us clear up a few misconceptions

• bats are protected by law (1976 Wildlife Act). They must not be disturbed or killed.
• bats are not dangerous, they do not carry disease
• bats are not rodents.
• bats are afraid of humans and try to stay away from people as best they can
• without bats, humans would be in trouble. Bats help control insect populations, reseed deforested land, and pollinate plants, including many that we eat. Researchers and scientists also learn from bats to improve medicine and technology.

Whilst all of the above is true, we accept that bats also look a bit freaky so we take care, in all of our cottages, to make sure they cannot get inside a cottage. The only way a bat will get into your cottage is if you leave doors and windows open at night – so you have to play your part – so don’t leave the door open when you decide to have a dip in the hot-tub at night.

In the unlikely event that a bat gets into your cottage, here’s what to do?

Don’t panic. Don’t vacate the room when you see a bat. They can disappear very quickly when left alone. Simply sit still and wait for the bat to land. Quickly put your hand over it (you can use a cloth or towel) and hang it on a wall outside. Never put it in a hedge.
Remember that we have to co-exist with these creatures – they won’t harm you so, please, don’t harm them.

*Information from: Dr Kate McAney, The Vincent Wildlife Trust