“Avoid at all costs.”
The property itself is excellent. It is a handsome building in a superb setting and, in the right hands, could be a genuinely exceptional hotel. Unfortunately, whoever owns and operates it has managed the remarkable feat of taking all of that potential and systematically destroying it through the actual experience of staying there. It is almost an insult to the idea of hospitality: a wonderful property being used as the backdrop for a masterclass in how not to run a hotel. The tragedy is that the building deserves so much better. Where to begin. Dornoch Station appears to be engaged in an elaborate impersonation of a five-star hotel. The building, photographs and prices all support the illusion. Unfortunately, staying there rather gives the game away. Reception was frequently not merely slow, but physically unoccupied. Calling from the room could involve listening to the telephone ring indefinitely. Rather wonderfully, we discovered that calling the hotel’s outside number was more effective. Presumably prospective guests still represent revenue, whereas those already inside have been successfully captured. The hotel also appeared hopelessly understaffed. The chambermaid we encountered was working extremely hard and doing her best, but seemed to have been placed in an impossible situation. She was very clearly not the problem; the problem was expecting one person to somehow compensate for an operation that simply did not appear to have enough people running it. Then there was breakfast. Breakfast finishes at 10am on a Saturday. Not 10.30, not 11.00: 10am. Arrive at 10.02 and you have apparently crossed an invisible international boundary beyond which food ceases to exist. The kitchen is closed. Breakfast is over. Nothing can be done. The greater mystery is that arriving before 10 does not necessarily improve matters greatly. By then much of the food appeared dried out and deeply uninviting. The orange juice, coffee and general quality were astonishingly poor for a hotel presenting itself at this level. It felt cheap, neglected and entirely at odds with the surroundings. Even finding somewhere to sit became an adventure. There were tables, but apparently they were “unavailable” because nobody had cleared and reset them. I eventually offered to clean one myself, which is not normally one of the activities I associate with staying in a supposed five-star hotel. Dinner followed the same philosophy. Restaurant? Unavailable. Room service? Advertised, but unavailable. Sandwich? Unavailable
PaolaVor 3 Wochen