Upon arrival at around 3.30pm, my group was told that one of our rooms wasn't ready, but it later transpired that what that meant was that it hadn't been built yet! This was despite booking months in advance, however, it appeared that the owner had only just realised that he'd taken too many bookings (after scrapping a previous idea to build an extension). Upon further questioning as to where I would actually be sleeping, I was told that it would be in the owner's house but that the room hadn't been made up yet. After returning from dinner, I was shown to what was clearly a dumping ground / room for storage, within which there was a bed and not much else! I was also shown the family bathroom across the hall, which wasn't very clean and had no lock on the door. The next day when using the shower I was almost ambushed by the owner's wife who thought it was her grandson in there! After two nights I was told that I could have a proper room after some other guests had checked out, which was reasonably comfortable. Prior to this, however, the owner didn't even acknowledge the situation and not once did he ask if I was okay in my makeshift room.
Previous reviews refer to this guesthouse being disorganised and that's definitely how I would sum it up. In addition to the unbuilt room fiasco, despite being asked to complete a form with our breakfast order and preferred time, we regularly waited 30-40 minutes for the food to arrive.
Had Kirkwall's B&B's not been fully booked that weekend I would have definitely gone elsewhere. I wouldn't recommend this place - not sure how it was awarded 4 stars or the award winning breakfast!
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
29 December 2009
What can I say. We goofed. This booking was taken nearly a year in advance at a time when we planned to make an additional room available for letting, and was amongst only a few dates we had fully booked out before a change in family circumstances caused us to put the plan on hold. I checked the bookings and where necessary made alternative arrangements but somehow missed this one. The error came to light only days before they were due to arrive, but we were unable to contact them. Despite our best efforts we were unable to find any alternative rooms - Kirkwall and surrounding area were fully booked out. Unaware what relationship the members of the party had with each other we prepared the family room (let for two of the party) for a third guest. On arrival it was apparent this was not appropriate, and the room provided was pressed into service as the only possible solution.
Naturally the guest in question was not charged and received complementary breakfast, but we wish we could have done more.
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