Irish Rose Carriages

What a wonderful evenings! Four of us did the Holiday Light tour, saw everything listed on the website (beautiful) and it lasted an hour! Our carriage driver had a nice warm and big blanket that covered our all four of our laps which kept us warm in the 18 degree weather. It was a mystical evening, I highly recommend if you are looking for something to do in downtown Denver.
I was hesitant to use Irish Rose Carriages based on past reviews, so glad I did not base me decision on them. It just goes to show most people will only review when a bad experience is had and not enough when it was good.
Thank you Irish Rose Carriages for helping us create an evening we will reminisce about for years to come.

DO NOT BOOK A RIDE !! The woman the owns this company (Marie Ray) is one of the nastiest people I have ever delta with. She is extremely rude to everyone. She has been investigated by the humane society for drugging her injured horses and making them work injured. She has been sued for not paying her employees. She is extremely rude to her customers. If anyone has had a good experience with this company it’s because they didn’t have to deal with the owner. The rides during Christmas is four times more then any other carriage company. If you reserve a carriage ride she charges you twice as much then if you walked up to one on the street. The rides are shorter then the time you are told. DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THIS COMPANY. YOU WILL REGRET IT.

A NIGHTMARE !!! DO NOT USE!!!
CUSTOMER SERVICE RATES A ZERO STARS!!! HERE’S WHY: Booking was a nightmare. What you book on-​line gets changed AFTER they take your month then tell you no refunds. Oh, and on the morning of the ride we are sent a text telling us it’s cancelled due to weather… all on a POSSIBLE STORM… which didn’t hit, so we got another text 3hrs before the scheduled ride saying RIDE IS ON… We live 2hrs away and had booked other family activities because of the cancellation.
Upon requesting the refund, via text because NO ONE will talk with you, I was told no refunds given and it’s on your confirmation — WHICH IT IS NOT!!! Plus, the owner/​employee (whoever was texting) proceeded to tell me I was «BANNED» from ever riding with them BUT STILL FAILED TO GIVE A REFUND AND SENT A GIFT CERTIFICATE!!!

We went for a carriage ride this weekend, downtown. I was able to book online, and actually use current technology. They reminded us the day of the ride, with all pertinent details.
The ride itself was lovely. Driver Jenny and horse Willow took us out and about downtown to see the holiday lights. Denver really does Christmas well, it was just beautiful.
There was a hostess onsite at the ride starting location, and she took our picture for us in the carriage before we left, and afterwards with Willow.
The whole experience was well orchestrated and well executed.
We were very pleased.

When you hear or read about horrible or shocking service you never think it will happen to you. But it happened to us. Actually I would say you probably will NEVER read a more shocking situation then this. We decided to go to Denver for Valentines day and planned a number of things to do. I called Irish Rose and scheduled a Valentines day ride.
On February 8 we received some horrible news, my Dad had passed away. Needless to say this was shocking to our family and we are still coming to terms with it. As we were planning a funeral, we had to also try to cancel all our trip arrangements. We were surprised by the kindness of the BIG companies like Hotwire, Southwest, Dollar, etc. Even the local Mom and Pop Motel refunded our money. After contacting Irish Rose we were met with the most cold hearted and mean spirited person I have EVER spoken too. The owner, Marie, spoke to me like I was making it up and asked me to show her proof! I actually did and she finally agreed to refund our money. She said she would get around to it soon. After several weeks, she emailed us saying she would subtract $ 50 for processing. For processing a letter?
A caution you that this person is probably the most insensitive, cold hearted person you will talk too. And unfortunately from the other reviews we have read, we aren’t the only ones.
Don’t even bother contacting this company, look for a company that has compassionate and a heart.

I was searching high and low for a Christmas Light Tour of Denver to surprise my boyfriend with for our anniversary. About a month ago, I called to book a ride on Irish Rose Carriages as the prices seemed good. When I called, I got a voicemail that instructs the caller to text as they apparently only check the voicemail once a day. I’m not a fifteen year old girl, so I decided to just wait until my voicemail could be checked. I just don’t find text communication to be a good business practice, but maybe that’s just me.
They did call me back in a day, which was good. However, the woman on the phone was so rude to me that I almost hung up. I was being perfectly pleasant to this woman and she snapped and sighed her way through our phone call. I considered asking if I’d done something wrong! At the end of the phone call, she said I would be recieving an email receipt within 10 minutes and that if I didn’t respond within 24 hours, I would lose my reservation and still be charged.
24 hours later — no email. So I fired off a very polite email asking if the email had been sent. No apology or reply — they simply replied to me with the original receipt. Again, it was a little irritating but I chose to ignore it.
Three days before my ride, I receive a text message stating that the ride would probably be cancelled due to snow (no refund, only reschedules). I understood that they can’t operate in bad weather. And yes, I understand that they don’t do refunds for weather changes. While I think this is bad business (because some of us only want a carriage ride for a specific date/​occasion) I get that they have to make money. But when you’re running a business — don’t text me to tell me about things like that. Take the time and courtesy to call me. I’m a customer, not a one night stand.
Anyway, I was pretty happy when the weather ended up being good and the ride was not cancelled. We were sent another text the day of the ride stating that we needed to be at the pick-​up site 15 minutes early to check-​in. It specifically stated that if we were not 15 minutes early, our ride would be cancelled.
So, we showed up at 5:15 for our 5:30 ride. My boyfriend walked up to the woman running the whole thing to check in. We received no «hello» no «how are you.» Instead, we got a «your ride isn’t for 15 more minutes. You need to go stand over by that wall.»
We signed some paperwork eventually and got on our carriage. We never received a «have fun» or even a smile. I felt bad for some of the kids taking the rides. Several of them asked to pet the horses and they were answered with a gruff, «NO.» I get that they don’t want to overwhelm the horses, but it’s not that hard to say, «I’m sorry, you can’t, but you can wave and say hello,» to an excited child.
Our driver was very nice and courteous — no complaints about her. The ride was not worth the money. We paid $ 85 (plus a $ 15 «driver fee» I was made aware of after I’d booked) plus a good tip. The ride was 15 minutes long. After our trip, we asked our driver to take a picture of us in the carriage. She very politely informed us that she could not as it was against the rules.
…So we pay over $ 100 to ride in a carriage for 15 minutes and we can’t even take a photo in the carriage?
I have done these trips before with other providers and had a lovely time. I have some fond memories of doing carriage rides in Denver. This company, however, treated me like an annoyance at every turn. I understand that a business has to make money, but the best way to keep repeat customers is to smile, engage, and treat people like they matter.

The customer service is absolutely shocking. The one star is given to our lovely driver and horse Moonlight — we had fun with them. But the business practices are incredibly unprofessional. We chose to do a Denver Premier Grand light tour and the total price is $ 165 ($ 155 and $ 10 convenience fee). And I will admit we chose to keep our appointment even with the snow conditions and the need for cleats. But by far did we see all the lights of Denver. We did not go down Larimer square which in my opinion is one of the most spectacular streets downtown. We rode down Arapahoe and saw the ice skating rink, down 14^th to the City and County building and back down 15^th to Arapahoe. I understand that they can not go down 16^th street with the cleats — but there is no excuse not to include Larimer square. Especially since they change the route and we didn’t go down 16^th street — what is tacking on one more block. So while I was disappointed with the ride overall — I was more disappointed with the bad customer service. First they tell you a corner to meet on and to be there 15 minutes prior otherwise they will sell your ride. Well nothing like that to put the fear into someone — their staff showed up 15 minutes late and making us frantic. If you require your customers to be early — than I expect the same from the company. When I contacted the company to file a complaint they were incredibly rude. First you can only contact them via text message — who does that? When they did return my call they were very rude and confrontational. The woman put me on hold and then returned to the line and hung up on me. Then proceeded to fight with me through text message. I don’t know about your business, but I don’t operate mine like a tween. I can only speak for this service as I have not tried the others — but if you are doing research — try one of the other many carriage companies, hopefully it will be better. Also they threatened legal action if I posted an unfavorable review — hmmm.

The customer service here is terrible! I asked the price for a one-​way, five-​block ride from a downtown church and boy was I surprised (and not pleasantly). Because it was for transportation for a bride and groom they would need $ 250 for the ride! When I said that we didn’t need anything fancy, just a carriage ride for five blocks, the old hag on the phone said, «well we have to sit around the church and wait for you to come out so we need to charge for our time just like plumbers do.» Classy analogy. I understand weddings require a steep upcharge, but seriously! I called another carriage company (Denver Carriage) and they were more than happy to pick us up at the church and give us a 30 minute ride for only $ 75!