Mount Falcon Estate

"Had the best day of our lives in the most unprecedented of time and that is down to the hard work and innovation of the mount falcon events team. Everything ran so smoothy, could not fault it.
We can wait to visit again.
Such a magical place. "

From the outset Mount Falcon were very personal and that is why we decided to have our wedding there. Any initial concerns we had were discussed and addressed and we had no issues.
Everything was very easy throughout the whole planning stage.
On the day of the wedding everything was perfect, nothing was too much for them. Our guests all commented on how great the staff were. All the staff were responsive, engaging and extremely friendly to everyone. They are an asset to the hotel. Food was gorgeous and very tasty.
We also had no issues with suppliers dealing with the hotel. Accommodation was great.
Also, Martin (falconary) was amazing and made some very special memories for us with my Dad. He is very passionate and excellent re. he's role.
In summary, we cannot speak highly enough about the staff. They made our wedding day and wkend so so very special. THANK YOU ALEXA and CO. Superb, class job by all.

Our experience with Mount Falcon from once we booked right up until after the wedding until today was dreadful.

Despite these failings which I will go into below, we still had an amazing wedding day but the management team at Mount Falcon did not contribute to that. It would not have happened without the help of some very important staff members at the hotel. John, a member of the waiting staff was exceptional, he couldn't do enough for us and is a credit to Mount Falcon. Shelley, Stephen, Julian, and all of the bar, waiting staff and beyond were excellent throughout our 4 day stay. The management team at Mount Falcon could learn a lot from their staff members regarding what good customer service looks like.

We fell between multiple stools following the changeover of wedding coordinators, having 3 in total. Following a very bad experience staying at the hotel, 1 year before our wedding, I had a long conversation with the hotel's owner, as we were very close to cancelling it altogether as we had zero confidence in the team's ability to deliver a wedding. He gave us his word that our experience would improve from that point on, and he would oversee our wedding personally. This did not happen.

The best way to explain what we had to deal with is by providing some factual examples. Note, this review does not cover the full extent of our complaints.

On our wedding day, a series of things happened.
First of all, our main course was not what we paid for and many guests found it to be inedible. We had paid a surcharge per person to have fillet steak cooked to order with options of medium or well done, this was agreed with the head chef in writing. On the day, none of our guests was asked for their temperature preference. The beef came out well done, just like a roast of beef, it was not tasty, and many of our guests did not eat it. The fish dish on the day was cod & prawns, it was inedible as it tasted like a full lime had been squeezed onto it. Neither my husband nor I ate our own wedding main course, we were very upset about it during the meal. We had a vegan menu, which equally was inedible and our guests resorted to eating boiled baby potatoes and carrots.

Sadly, it has come to light that on that day the chef turned up to work very late and not even staff could not get him on the phone as he was out socialising the night before. This is likely why the food was so bad on our wedding day.

No one called us to cut the cake for our guests, we forgot, so we missed out on that special moment. The cake table was placed on a tacky sequined table cloth, although another table had been planned for it. The instructions provided to the hotel from the cake maker were not followed, resulting in the cake partially collapsing on the day.

A lot of decorations and props that we had bought and brought to the hotel were not left out, including bathroom hamper items. It left us with a lot of items to bring back home again. Had I been able to set up like it was agreed, this would not have happened. It's very disappointing and money wasted.

Typically a manager or the planner would be MC and introduce the speeches and the bridal party but this was not the case our wedding day and a member of the waiting staff was running it for the hotel.

The groom was hassled by the reception to check out/exit the lodge at 11 am before the wedding ceremony and asked to pay for it there and then. Considering we were staying for 4 nights, and he was getting ready there with his family and groomsmen this was very unreasonable ask, as it had been originally agreed we would have it until he left. There was no common sense forthcoming from the reception and it ended up upsetting him that morning as they were relentless on the topic.

A breakfast I didn't order was sent to the bridal suite (bacon sandwiches and white bread, not what we wanted that morning) and when we ordered our actual breakfasts from the menu, I was forced to sign it as an extra payment. I had agreed with the hotel that we could order off the menu, so I was quite confused about what was going on.

Mount Falcon broke our contract by booking out our allocated rooms 6 months before our wedding. When we booked our wedding, Mount Falcon only held 1 event per weekend rule. which was a selling point when we booked.
They asked us could they hold an event 2 days before as it wouldn't impact our plans, which of course we were fine with. To find out 3 days before our wedding we were lied to. The event was held the night before, giving us no access to the function room to decorate which had previously been arranged with the planner. I was kept up till 3 am listening to this large corporate group sing-song the night before our wedding as the bridal suite is above the bar! We had to beg for bedrooms for my bridal party and repeatedly had to follow up. Little effort was made to accommodate us until the week before our wedding.
Guests were given different prices when they called about room bookings. Lodges were cheaper online than what we had been told the wedding rate was, which was embarrassing when a guest pointed this out to us.

At one point the reservations department told me that they had no bridal suite booked for me the night before the wedding and there were no rooms left in the hotel, 2 months beforehand, but later realised it was a mistake and put it down to the ?Monday Blues?.

It seems that no copy of our contract was kept on file, so we were constantly telling them what was included, which was a frustrating theme throughout.

Upon check out, when we received a bill here is a breakdown of what we had to deal with. Firstly, a 10 euro discount had been applied to all our guests that stayed at the hotel on the night of the wedding. Each 10 euro was then added to our bill. This was not agreed, not contracted nor did anyone ask our permission to do it. It came as a huge shock.

A cost of 92 euros was added to our bill for the bottle of prosecco and bacon sandwiches sent to the bridal suite, which we had not ordered. I thought Mount Falcon was actually just being nice and doing the right thing by sending up a bottle of prosecco, I should have known better!

A gift sent to us (champagne and flowers) from friends abroad, these items were added to our bill, for no reason as they were already paid for.

A member of the bridal party was told that his room was paid for by us when checking and this was added to our bill, leaving us in a very awkward situation to have that room paid for afterwards.

Drinks that had not been paid for (apparently) the night of the wedding, were all added to our bill, even when there was no signed receipt for them.

It took 3 hours to deal with the General Manager (GM) and try and clarify each item, he was quite difficult to deal with which describes our experience mildly. He insisted we had to pay for things that we hadn't ordered or alternatively sit through CCTV to find the culprits that didn't pay for their Sprite etc at 4 am.

We spent a further 1 hour with the GM detailing all of our complaints. He took no more than 20 words in notes in the final half of the meeting, which showed little respect for us. He promised he would investigate all of it and come back to us to explain what had happened and also would provide a final bill based on his findings. He also promised to have the head chef to contact me to tell me what had gone wrong with the wedding meal. 4 hours dealing with the GM, 2 days after our wedding is a lot of time to give when we should have been on our mini-moon. We sadly now realise it was all for nothing.

The GM dismissed us by thanking us for our feedback over email after we had to chase him. We didn't provide feedback, we have raised very serious complaints to the hotel which have still not been acknowledged.

Over 3 months on, we've had no reasonable responses from Mount Falcon. We shared this review before posting it online to the hotel's owner 6 weeks ago, as he had not been informed by his staff the extent of our complaints. Sadly, he was due to respond following his own investigations, but he has not. We have given them every opportunity to do the right thing, but we have been repeatedly ignored. Therefore, this honest review has been earned.

Dealing with Mount Falcon was so frustrating throughout and the difficulties we experienced could have easily been avoided by communication, staff training and a focus on customer service. It's a beautiful venue, perfect for weddings, but their lack of processes and poor management team have let the hotel down over and over again.

We would not recommend Mount Falcon as a wedding venue.

Most couples look forward to returning to the hotel they were married in on their anniversary. It is safe to say with sadness, my husband and I will never return to Mount Falcon.

Alexa, thank you for all you did for us for the wedding, it was such an amazing day. During the lead-up to the wedding, you were always there to answer our questions and deal with everything in a professional and courteous manner. We appreciate it so much. The day went so well and everyone enjoyed every minute of it.

Thanks again to all of the team. I can't wait to see all of the photos.

Many many thanks Alexa. We would love to come back again to stay perhaps during winter. I will be in touch.


All the best
Collette and Brian

We had an amazing wedding day at Mount Falcon! Alexa is an amazing wedding coordinator and is excellent at her job. She is extremely reliable and really went above and beyond for us. Her attention to detail is incredible. Alan and the food &beverage team are also excellent - the food was just beautiful and we got lots of compliments from our guests about the food and wine. The falconry was a huge hit with our guests and we would highly recommend. Mount Falcon itself has so much character and the grounds and setting are just stunning. We are so happy with how everything went and would highly recommend.

Fantastic Venue. Couldn't do enough for us in the lead up to our wedding and on the day itself. Highly recommended.

Mount Falcon is a really great venue- the grounds are beautiful and the food, hospitality and accommodation are really excellent. We were ably looked after by Clodagh and Martina, who ensured everything ran smoothly on the day and we were able to sit back and relax. Our guests loved it, and we would not hesitate to recommend it to friends.

Mount falcon was amazing to deal with, no job to big or small, alan wedding co_ordinator was amazing, during the night of the wedding he became my hairdresser and fixed my hair, there wasnt anything he wouldnt do for us, he made my husband and i at ease in the build upto the wedding and weekend of the wedding, he de stressed my mother and reassured her everything was been done, the venue everyone i spoke to since loved it and plan on going back at some stage themselves, there was not anything that they faulted with, yes a little expensive however you get what you pay for and we certainly did plus more, the food our menu was amazing and the cheif was accomadating to us on changing certain food, everyone enjoyed there meal and the service on the food was very good, people where not waiting long for there food, the staff, i can honestly say in all the dealings we had with the hotel and the days we went there on the lead upto the wedding the staff where amazing so helpful,polite and always smiling, i would highly recommened mount falcon they are so trust worthy, you want your wedding a certain way gaurentee they will do it your way