We arrived late Monday afternoon and quickly received the keys to our room. The room was on the second floor and was clean and cosy. Overall the Hotel was nicely decorated and the majority of staff hard working and pleasant. We do, however, have a couple of criticisms. Firstly the "shower" (using that term loosely) was far too inadequate. It was very difficult to control the water temperature and the "shower" was little more than a trickle of water!! If someone in another room turned on the hot tap the water suddenly went freezing cold. Just what you want first thing in the morning.
The staff work hard and overall are pleasant. The food was good, plenty of variety and was always hot. Kelly who works in the bar is an amazing lady. She soon got to know each guest and their room number and what drinks they preferred. What a memory!! Well done Kelly.
BUT what spoilt our stay was the poor service we received from some staff on the Thursday morning. We went down for breakfast at 8.00 am and placed our order for a "full breakfast". We were booked to go out for the day on an excursion leaving at 9.15.
We sat patiently waiting for our breakfast. Other guests had now come in to the dining room and placed their orders. The previous two days we had breakfast served to us within ten minutes or so of placing the order. 15 minutes had gone by and no sign of our breakfast but we noticed that other guests who had arrived after us had been served their breakfast. We still sat there patiently waiting. 30 minutes had now elapsed since we placed our order and still no sign of ours. After 45 minutes had gone by I attracted the attention of one of the waitresses and asked where our breakfast was. During all this waiting time no-one came to us to offer an explanation or apologise for the delay. Time was ticking along and it was now 8.55 am and still no breakfast!!!!
I went to the front reception to make a complaint about the long wait. The receptionist listened to my complaint, then merely said " well, we do have 100 guests to serve breakfast to!" I just stood there in utter amazement at the response. She then went on to say to complain to the kitchen supervisor. Again, no apology for the delay. I went back in to the dining room to find that at last we had our breakfast. It was now 9.05 leaving us just ten minutes to gulp our full breakfast down. All the other guests had now left the dining room and were getting ready to board the coach for the excursion.My partner had also asked the waitress when she finally came to our table with our breakfast, why the long wait and that all the other guests who arrived after us had been served and left the dining room. I was astonished that once again the reply was " we have 100 guests to serve!!! and walked off.
I think that some staff need to learn "people skills". A simple apology or an explanation to the long delay would have gone a long way to appease us.
I did try to see the manager on our return from our excursion but unfortunately he was not on duty.
I did however, see the duty manager the following morning. He listened to my complaint, (I will add that at no time was I rude or aggressive in making my complaint, either on the morning in question or the following day, when I saw the duty manager. After I had told him the way we felt, he immediately apologised. He agreed that the response we had at the time was not good enough and that he would make sure that this did not happen in the future.
I did point out to him that this had spoilt what would have been a very enjoyable stay.
Would I go back? Mmmm hard to say but probably yes, just to see if things have improved.

Stayed on a Shearings 4 night winter all inclusive break in Jan 2012. Great location over the town with fantastic views to Northern Ireland and Isle on Man.Perfectly good safe step route down from hotel to town or an alternative road route out from hotel main door. The stepped route is the start of the Southern Upland Way a well marked long distance path that has a great coastal section from the front of the hotel. Several comfortable lounge areas in the hotel, pleasant airy dining room with good food for breakfast and dinner ( good choice without having to pay for supplements) served by helpful and cheerful staff team who all seemed for a change to be local people. Free bar (limited but adequate choice) very welcome for 3 hours in the evening. Music enbtertainment on 2 nights. Standard room at rear of hotel looked over golf course again pleasnat and warm and cosy with a good bathroom with over bath shower. For the price paid (with 2 included excursions to Stranraer and north end of Rhinns of Galloway (half day) and Ayr via coast road and Alloway on a full day) it was a brilliant bargain. Quality of food at dinner was noticeably better than in other Shearings hotels in their Bay chain that we have visited. Hotel too seemed more cared for with clear refurbishment in evidence in the ground floor area of the public rooms

We have just come back from a 4 night stay, we traveld with Shearings coach trips.
We had a standard sea view room on the 1st floor, the view over Portpatrick harbour was beautifull and well worth the extra money.
The room was spacious and very clean, we had a shower room with everything you need, plenty of clean towels and toiletries, and a hot towel rail to keep the towels nice and warm.
The bed was comfortable but unusually it had a blanket and a quilted throw instead of a continental quilt, i did notice that some people asked reception for more blankets, we just kept the wall heater on overnight and it was warm enough.
A good hot beverage tray was in the room with good quality tea and coffee and suchards hot chocolate sachets and biscuits, this was replenished every day.
The hotel reception rooms were of a modern design and did not have that Scotish feel to them, they had a contempary design but the hotel was nicely decorated with plenty of different seating areas and a nice size television lounge with a big flat screen television.
The food at the hotel was good, the menu was varied with several good choices, the starters were imaginitive with homemade soup , salads pate. and fish, one night we had a selection of indian starters, they were delicious. The main choice always had 2 meat choices and a vegetarian and a fish choice. If you see Beef bourignon on the menu choose it , it was lovely realy well cooked and presented. Breakfast was good as well, buffet starters and a cooked breakfast with plenty of choice, always nicely cooked.
All the staff at the hotel were very good, all pleased to help and service with a smile. At no time were we treated like a coach party, we had individual attention at meal times and all other times
Overall i think this break was excellent value for money, we even had included drinks in the evening. we had 2 nights with entertainment and both were very good. There was not alot of seats in the entertainment room so my advice would be to get in there early or if you havnt got a seat just get one from the dining room , which is what we did.
From the hotel there are steps down to the harbour, or for a gentler walk down walk out the front of the hotel and turn first right and then down the steps with a gentler incline.
The village of Portpatrick is very pretty, not much to do in the winter but there is a restaurant a cafe and a few hotels and pubs where you can get a drink or something to eat. The crown had a warm Scottish welcome and a lovely log fire.
even in bad weather you cant help but think that Portpatrick is a pretty gem of a place.
we enjoyed our stay at the Portpatrick hotel

went here with friends for hogmany, it was a pleasant expieriance, the hotel was warm and the staff were very good, this hotels biggest asset is its location, sitting above the beutifull village of portpatrick, with its lovely harbour, the food in the hotel let it down a bit,, this is only my opinion, it was a bit bland, and the presantation was below par, but the staff made up for that with a friendly manner and helpfull way they went about their job,, two nights entertainment were held in a lounge which held about 40 people, there were 90 guests so a black mark there, the singers on these nights were first class and deserved a better location,,, ie the dining hall was available, we went to enjoy ourselves and thats what we did, i would go back,,,