Royal Hotel

We checked in late Friday afternoon as we were heading to a wedding at Lochside. We stayed in room 15, one of the refurbished rooms. It was spotless and very nicely decorated. Tea/coffee and biscuits complimentary. Iron ironing board, fan and toiletries also in the room. We went for breakfast next morning and had the full Scottish breakfast which was lovely, very fresh and tasty. Our host at breakfast was Ian who was very professional and listened to us rambling on about the antics of the wedding. He could not do enough for us and in fact I am sure he normally works at Lochside but was covering at the Royal that day.

For our one night stay this hotel fitted the bill. Our large attic room had very comfortable beds and a large bathroom. However the whole hotel was very 'tired' and in need of modernising and decoration. Our dinner and breakfast in the restaurant were excellent and the staff friendly. I'd stay here again.

A decent enough hotel. Room clean, pleasant and modern, staff helpful, restaurant menu and food entirely satisfactory. Only minor gripe. The hotel reception is the same desk as the restaurant booking in using the same staff. This is not signposted and we wandered around looking for reception for a couple of minutes before a member of staff spotted us and helped us.

Evening meal: Despite being told that we were staying on a special deal, staff still gave us the full menu rather than the more restricted one until we went to the bar to query it. The bill listed a large bottle of sparkling water at £5, rather than the much cheaper small bottle we actually had. Questioning this at the bar revealed a further lack of knowledge and training. Room: nice but funny smell. This was due to the bath filling with human waste when the toilet was flushed (photo attached). When we voiced concern about the public safety issue of the plumbing and reluctance to shower or bathe in raw sewage, we were given the key for another room to shower. (The waste water from this room also bubbled into the bath on the original room. So it was not just our toilet emptying to our bath, but also waste from at least another) It appeared that only one lick of emulsion had been applied to this second bathroom. Two might have been better and with time taken not to splatter the door with droplets of paint. (Or at least clean the splattered droplets up - it looks like splattered toothpaste without closer inspection. Generally, taps and sanitary wear were loose. This extended to the taps in the public lavatories next to the function room; where the levers to operate the taps were missing and the taps were not secured to the basins. Breakfast: we were advised that some items on the menu were not available " due to delivery problems. (This lack of ingredients is mentioned on other reviews here) However there was no cold meat, fruit or cheeses out and this was not mentioned as items for which there were delivery issues. "Clean" crockery was dirty with dried egg and other bits on them and it took some searching on other tables to find a cup which was clean. I notice the website states the there has been a recent facelift throughout regarding carpets, lights, fittings, TVs, etc, but to coin a phrase, putting lipstick on a pig doesn't change it from being a pig.

Were told on check in our room had been refurbished!!! Not sure where, the bath had no enamel on the bottom, the bath side was broken, the taps had no handles on nor plug pulls, the carpet was dirty, the room had been wallpapered on top of wallpaper since the 70's. The windows were so high we couldn't close them. See pictures of cleaning on entry from remote control etc. Good points, the Chef and waitress's are amazing, food is divine, the staff was the only reason I gave this an average rating.

My wife and I stayed here for two nights (Room 15) while attending a nephew’s wedding at venue in New Cumnock some 4 miles away. Extremely comfortable bed, room was very clean with a good supply of complimentary tea, coffee and hot chocolate and nice biscuits. En-suite was spacious and the shower was excellent. Staff are really helpful. We had an evening meal on the first evening - good choices and nicely cooked. We had breakfast on 2 days which was freshly prepared and faultless - set us up for the day! This is a pleasant place to stay and the staff work hard to make it enjoyable.