Macdonald Cardrona Hotel

The hotel is tired and we had to request a room move due to our original room smelling musty - (a hotel housekeeper agreed). There was no water in the hotel for a long period of time and despite trying to ring reception for a good half hour no one came to advise of the situation. This resulted in myself and colleagues arriving for dinner unwashed and slightly miserable. The food was decent (a saving grace). During dinner we were advised by staff that our room was flooded as the water had come back on and we were then moved to a third room! All in all a disaster!!

Rooms were very poor condition with mould and damp on ceiling in bathroom, toilet roll holder hanging off the wall. Groud floor corridors smelt of sewage ( we were advised there had been a leak) Ground floor window would not close or lock so anyone could get in from outside. Due to age of hotel no bedside plug sockets for charging phones no USB sockets. Electric heating. This can all be accepted as this is an older hotel 2004. No prosecco in room on arrival had to ask for this. We requested alternative rooms and were given better accommodation. Restaurant were not expecting us for dinner, I had to show the email of my itinerary to show it was booked or we would not have been given a table. Ordered wine from wine list but the one we wanted was not available so asked to see list to choose something else and were given a completely different wine list. Food was delicious and service was very good. Breakfast was also very good as was service. We were not booked in for Afternoon tea on Saturday despite checking after breakfast. We later arrived for afternoon tea to find cream tea had been booked instead. Staff resolved this for us and we got afternoon tea. Bedroom was not fully serviced, cups were washed but empty bottles, melted ice in ice bucket, dirty glasses and plates were left even though the used tea cups were placed on top of dirty plates. Tea/ coffee etc was not replaced and we had to request more. No second key for the room available so we had to juggle plans when we were using the spa etc at different times. No cocktails at the bar despite having them listed on the menu. Communications between reception,restaurant and spa was terrible we booked an additional cream tea for Sunday via the spa, main reception said there was no booking but spa told us to speak to the restaurant as it was booked through them. Reception and restaurant are in the same location 10ft away from each other! Staff were very good at resolving any issues, food was great. We had a good time over all but wouldn't go back to this hotel as not of 4 Star quality.

The experience we had was not what we expected of a hotel of this standard. When we arrived (at the correct check-in time) it was busy and everyone was being told that their rooms were not ready. We were told that we had been upgraded because our room was not ready either. When we arrived we found that the bathroom was very nice but there was no valance on the divan bed, the carpet was completely threadbare and the ice bucket and tray were covered in dust and fingerprints - with only one water glass laid out. We decided not to request to be moved as there were clearly no other rooms ready and we had spa appointments booked soon. Because we had been moved, the prosecco and robes/slippers that were included in our package were not placed in our room until after we had returned from our spa treatments - and even then only one set of robes/slippers was provided and we had to request the second at reception. To make matters worse, one of the robes was still damp when I unpacked it and tried to put it on in the evening! The food in the restaurant was delicious but, although the staff were friendly, service was very slow and inefficient. We would have purchased more drinks during the meal if we had been asked or could have caught someone's eye, and at one point the waiter tried to take my plate away whilst I was literally in the middle of eating - cutlery raised in mid-air! Most surprising was the fact that the lift was broken, so we had to walk three floors between the spa and our room. We heard that the lift had been out of order for a couple of weeks - totally unacceptable when that seemed to be the only lift in the hotel. The leisure area was very nice and we did not use the golf facilities so cannot comment on those.

The over all hotel itself wasn’t very up to date, a bit scruffy on a personal view. I ended up purchasing the valentine spa overnight deal. I would say it was understaffed and needed a better management system of training on front of house and particularly in the restaurant. They had missed our reservation for dinner and we were told to come for 45 minutes later than the time I had booked. Also we had to wait 20 minutes for a table at breakfast, never have I had to wait for a table so early? The staff were amongst themselves chatting as I could see several tables were free however they had dirty plates and cups etc from people who had been previously sat there. Once we did arrive to our table on either side of myself both the tables remained with the dirty dishes which I thought wasn’t very professional or well managed. The food however was very good so couldn’t fault that however I personally wouldn’t stay here again although I would come back to use the spa facilities.