It is late May of 2010. A visit to Ayr, a coastal town in western Scotland reminds that many towns are suffering the rigours of recession. Two closed Woolworths on the High St. are just two of the many 'for sale' or 'to let' signs that populate the mains street. The seemingly stagnant High Street economy, even with a Rabbie Burns event being heavily promoted, seemed to see little of the benefit to the bar and restaurants of the town.
So it was that a quick internet search for accommodation on this Saturday night suggested almost full accommodation with the implicationthat my impressions might be wrong. Floyds Hotet showed availability so we booked and paid on line.

The hotel booking site suggested that it was a five minutes walk from the centre, my SaNav told me it was two miles. The 'family run' hotel turned out to be leased. The rooms we were given were clean and OK for a place to stay overnight. The quickly resolved fuss about our on-line reservation left the feeling that internet booking was not a regular feature of the Hotel. Turns out the hotel had been designated for demolition during the property boom but objection about what would replace left the hotel in limbo.

It is a 1970's style mansard roofed, two story style, low rise small hotel with a hotel entrance at one end and a function room/ lounge bar entrance at the other. The rooms have bottom swing out single glazed windows if that helps paint the picture.

First noticable feature was the closed reception desk and the absence of 60% of functioning lights in the hotel area. The bar area was pretty much the same though possibly less. This hotel had the hallmarks of an enterprise holding on by its fingernails.
A function in the lounge gave the place a vitality . The bar staff worked hard and the class reunion appeared to be having a great time. It gave our visit a moment of joviality. Minor irritations I will not mention and the fact that our arrival at 9 a.m with a doubt that there would be breakfast were confirmed as we proved to be a surprise to the man swamping out the function room. Nevertheless we said it did not matter all that much and left in search of breakfast en route with a pleasant enough almost rye feeling about the visit and a certain sympathy that this hotel appeared to be yet another victim of recession and a wish that nothing I would write here would make things worse