A Donegal hotel has apologised after a promotional €2 a room backfired on them.
The Beach Hotel in Downings advertised their rooms for last weekend at a bargain price before they planned to close on Monday.
Under current Level 3 coronavirus guidelines, which came into force on Friday for the county, restaurants and bars can serve 15 people in an outdoor setting.
But hotels are allowed serve guests inside, leading to Beach Hotel Downings cutting the price of their rooms for the weekend.
However, the promotion was slammed by members of the public.
Among them was Donegal-based Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue who said: “It’s totally unacceptable.”
The hotel has now apologised for any “unintentional offence caused by our local offer issued yesterday on Facebook.”
Management explained that the offer was only intended for local people.
They explained “Our intention was that no one would be using the bedrooms; it was merely a method to allow customers to become residents for a maximum period of 1 hour 45 minutes in line with government regulations, so they could avail of our dining and beverage services indoors.
“Government guidance allows only residents to be served inside and up to 15 non-residents outside. The offer was based on our interpretation of this guidance.
“The offer was a way for us to remain in operation so that we could recoup our costs from stock ordered for the full house of residents that cancelled on Friday evening.”
The hotel said it also allowed them to keep their staff employed and we believe this has highlighted the current stress facing the hospitality industry at present across Ireland.
They added “While it was never our intention to cause offence, we like the other hotels, bars and restaurants in Donegal were left in an impossible position.
“We were told by the government that we could stay open, but then told to operate under such strict restrictions, whereby it was not feasible to keep our doors open. The health and safety of our guests, employees and community are of the utmost importance to us.
“Since reopening, we have been strictly following official protocol regarding sanitisation, social distancing rules and the collection of contact tracing information.”
