Extravagant promises - and prices to match: Edel Morgan on what guests were offered
Some of the owners of houses and apartments in a 50 to 70 mile radius of the Ryder Cup event at the K Club must now be donning their chauffeurs' caps or becoming servants (or both) to provide the laundry, cooking and driving services they advertised on the internet to entice people to rent their homes.
With so many three-bed semis and bungalows to rent, some homeowners made such extravagant promises it's hard to imagine how they'll deliver without the help of a team of domestics for the duration. The supply of houses available to rent during the Ryder Cup so outstripped demand that some of ads posted by owners had a hint of desperation about them. And the further away they were from the event, the more that was being offered. One wonders, now that the Ryder Cup is upon us, if people are going to abandon their day jobs and families to wait on their visitors hand and foot?
The owner of a three-bed bungalow on the Dublin Road in Portlaoise, Co Laois, advertised on rydercuphomerental.com, for example, is going to be very busy. They've offered everything from an "open log /turf fire to melt your heart after your day's golfing" to the use of a massaging recliner chair, green fees and lunch for six people at local course, free gym membership and free admission to the "local hotspot nightclub". If that wasn't enough optional extras included, a laundry service, full Irish breakfast, transport to and from the airport, a "chauffeur" service to the "K Club daily" and guided tours of "Laois attractions".
While most of the available luxury properties were snapped up some time ago by the official sponsors of the Ryder Cup for six-figure sums, competition was stiff among the relatively modest semis and bungalows which were asking anything from €600-€30,000 for a week or two-week period.
A lot of the ads offered a "chauffeur driven" car service to and from the event and the airport or a very important sounding "executive car service". On a Ryder cup forum on Kildare.ie a guy offering a double room to rent in Dublin 5 made the very tempting offer of "a drive in an Audi A4 to the golf", followed by a half-hearted "meals can be provided if required but with so many good pubs with grub why should you!" He didn't mention whether he was going to wait at the Park & Ride all day for his paying guest or whizz down from Dublin 5 in his Audi as soon as he was summoned.
A lot of ads omitted to mention the 2km exclusion zone around Straffan, giving the definite impression they'd be dropping their visitors off at the front door of the K Club. It will emerge over the coming weeks if many people have been duped by misleading ads on accommodation websites. Like the one for a three-bed house in Laraghcon in Lucan, west Dublin, claiming it is "in touching distance of Ryder Cup". In Sallins, Co Kildare, the owner of a two-bed apartment wrote that the area is an ideal spot for coarse fishing, adding "when not watching the golf, you could practically cast your line from the front door". Creative licence was also taken with drivetimes to the event, like the property owner in Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, claiming his three-bed house is 20 minutes' from the K Club - by helicopter perhaps ?
Others were less ambitious in their incentives. A three-bed bungalow in Newbury Park in Carbery, Co Kildare for $6,500 (€5,119) (was supplying "a stocked fridge including a supply of Guinness". Who could resist? The ad for a house in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, was more cryptic, merely stating "special requests catered for". So a red carpet flanked by white candles on arrival á la Mariah Carey wouldn't be out of the question then?
A few were clearly clutching at straws like the two-bed house in Sallynoggin, for $4,300 (€3,387) boasting "a hammock" in its 100ft back garden and the house in Blessington Co Wicklow with "settees in lounge".
An ad for a five-bed semi-detached house in Moyglare Abbey in Maynooth offering an executive car transport and a cleaning and laundry service and asking $30,000 (€23,637) tried to tempt readers with the local "VIVACIOUS" night spots and "fashionable" restaurants.
So is there any comeback for Ryder Cup visitors arriving over the next few days who find the domestic help isn't up to the job, the nightclubs are not at all "VIVACIOUS", or the property they've rented for €10,000 is a dump?
"No" says Karen Gorey Chairperson of Kildare Fáilte. "If they've taken that risk of unapproved accommodation, there's no real comeback. Although they could try writing a letter of complaint to the owner of the property."
Meanwhile amid all the frenzy, a mole tells me the shutters are down on most of the houses in the uber-exclusive Churchfields in the K Club grounds. There's apparently little evidence of houses being rented there as yet. And you can bet if any of them are, the owners won't be running around doing fry-ups and laundry for their short-term tenants.
