Maes y Garth

Maes y Garth

Review

I had previously endorsed Maes-y-Garth Guest House under its former owners, Tracy and Stefan, who ran it with great care and attention to detail. They truly made it a standout place to stay in Betws-y-Coed, and I was proud to recommend their establishment. However, my recent experience with the current owner, Phillip Matthew Dunne, has been nothing short of a nightmare.

After me contacting its alleged new owner Mr Phillip Matthew Dunne, to ask to come and have a look around the place, he initially after letting me down a couple of times when I had travelled to see him, just didn’t even bother to turn up. Yes, against my initial gut feeling about this guy, a new meeting was arranged to which he did actually turn up to. After showing me around the property and all the amazing things he said he was going to do with the place, I agreed to endorsing him and his Guest House back into my Top 100 Attractions in Wales book. He presented himself as the legitimate owner of the guest house, but things quickly took a sinister turn. After first claiming to be the owner, and then, after some time, when we were chasing him to pay an invoice for design work created for him, he then tried to make out that he wasn’t actually the owner at all, suggesting that an Asian gentleman was the "front man." His behavior raised many red flags. Because of this, we had no option but to pursue him through the small claims court. This didn’t end well for him I’m afraid.

After attempts to resolve the matter and even seeking legal action, it became clear that Mr Phillip Matthew Dunne was not as legitimate as he first appeared. As mentioned above, I ended up having to take him to the small claims court, and what I uncovered through my investigations was troubling. Many individuals I spoke to referred to him as a "cowboy electrician from Liverpool," a title that seemed fitting as my dealings with him only confirmed his lack of professionalism and integrity. Upon weighing all the evidence against Mr Dunne and Maes-y-Garth Guest House in Betws-y-Coed, the small claims court awarded a CCJ against him and the business, which speaks volumes about his conduct and the property he manages in the Conwy Valley.

Given my experience, I feel it's important to warn others. As a travel journalist with nearly two decades of experience, it is my personal feeling that I strongly recommend you avoid Maes-y-Garth Guest House and, most certainly, do not pay any deposits or hand over any money to these guys for your stay. There are plenty of wonderful places to stay in Betws-y-Coed, but this unfortunately is not one of them. In the 15 years that I have been writing these Top 100 Attractions series of books, I have never come across a place so badly run, or met someone so disingenuous.

Joshua Stevenson