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3.5
#15 of 16 hotels in Oban
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Value
In a prime location, right in the centre of the curving esplanade, just a pleasant walk from the shops and harbour, stands Oban's Great Western; a hotel proud of offering space and comfort, as well as magnificent views of the bay (remember to look out for those memorable sunsets!). Ideal for a relaxing holiday, the activity on the bay can simply be watched from the welcoming lounge and cocktail bar, while it's also an ideal touring centre. With Glencoe, serene lochs and the Western Isles on the doorstep, there's a myriad of sightseeing opportunities. And with coast and country walks, angling, sailing, diving, bird-watching and a whole host of other leisure pursuits at hand, you should never be at a loss for something to do.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
Lake View
Mountain View
Languages Spoken
English
Location
Corran Esplanade, Oban PA34 5PP Scotland
Great Western Hotel
1,328 reviews
Getting there
Great for walkers
Places to stay are graded on a 0-100 scale. The higher the grade, the easier it is for travellers to find restaurants and things to do within walking distance.
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The Great Western Hotel, while lauded for its excellent harborside location with stunning views, faces criticism for its value proposition, with guests deeming the pricing steep given the outdated accommodations and lackluster service. While some guests appreciate the friendliness of the staff, others have encountered unprofessionalism.
The hotel's atmosphere and rooms are often described as in need of a thorough renovation, and cleanliness receives mixed reviews, indicating inconsistency in upkeep.
Location
Picturesque
Atmosphere
Outdated
Rooms
Neglected
Value
Expensive
Cleanliness
Mixed
Service
Inconsistent
Amenities
Underwhelming
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This could be described as your typical old British seaside hotel. We stayed as part of a shearings tour which proved amazing value for money. We travelled on the luxurious grand tourer and our driver Jack was excellent. The hotel is also part of the shearings group but its such a shame that they have not invested in it and maintained it in the same way as some of their other hotels such as the Tarbe on Loch Lomond and the Caledonian in Fort william which have a much more luxurious feel to them. After our long journey we entered a hotel that felt cold and old. The bar was so cold we could not sit in it throughout the weekend, dispite the fact that the heating was on full. Bedrooms were warm and cosy and very functional, even though very old fashioned,elt as though I was staying at my nans!!! To be fair they had everything that you needed, such as digital tv, in room tea and coffee, hairdryer, phone and of course were ensuite. I had a backfacing room which was fine, though my mothers was at the front of the building and was really cold. The 1st night she got no sleep due to the howling wind and roar of the sea. While the hotel can hardly be held responsible for the weather, the glazing left a lot to be desired.. Reception staff however have a can do attitude and moved her to another room the following day where she was able to have a peaceful stay. I found the beds and pillows uncomfortable. Only a sheet over the matress, no matress protectors which is infact a legal requirement that all establishments have to adhere to from a simple hygiene perspective.
The hotels redeeming factor was the food. The quality and presentation of the evening meals was first class with a varied choice of menu with fresh ingrediants. Service was also excellent in the Restaurant and we always really enjoyed a high quality dining experience in the evening. I would have happily paid £20 for this 3 course meal if dinner had not been included.. Breakfast while not quite as elaborate as dinner was an ok hot and cold buffet. The evening entertainment was more suited to a certain age group and we found the gentleman who was singing on Sat 22nd quite rude and he gave the impression that younger people are not welcome or wanted in this hotel. The weekend was excellent value for money. we love touring around Scotland with shearings but until they invest and refurbish this property we would not return . they have much nicer quality hotels in scotland such as the Tarbet or Caledonian. I guess its down to personal taste.
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Date of stay: February 2020
Location
Service
Sleep Quality
Room Tip:Â avoid sea view rooms because of the noise. rear facing rooms are quiet and warmer
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from VickiGlen, General Manager at Great Western Hotel
Responded 26 Feb 2020
I appreciate you taking the time to share your review. We are committed to the continual refurbishment of our hotel and this is very much an ongoing project with a vast number of our bedrooms having been upgraded over the past few years. We have also redecorated our bar area over the past few weeks and have started on our reception area this week. The weather recently has been anything but kind to us. I'm pleased to see your comments regarding our food offering and will be sure pass these onto our chefs. We hope you will reconsider and choose to stay with us again. Vicki Glen General Manager
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Had a lovely family weekend with Caledonian Travel at this hotel. We were in five different rooms, four of which were excellent value for holiday cost but single room ( on which a supplement was paid as well as extra for a sea view) was not up to standard by a long way! An alternative room was offered but with no sea view which was not ideal at all. Staff are fantastic, very polite and helpful. Food was very nice although a couple of members of our party could have done with bigger portions. Entertainment every evening, some better than others, enjoyed the folk singer on Friday night but putting an act on every night is really good.Would come back and would recommend,ideal position for town as well.
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Date of stay: January 2020Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from VickiGlen, General Manager at Great Western Hotel
Responded 1 Feb 2020
Thank you for sharing your review. I'm pleased to see on the whole you found your stay to be value for money. I will be sure to pass your comments to the team and we hope to see you again soon. Vicki Glen General Manager
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I have stayed in many different hotels around the world so I think I have a pretty good idea of what constitutes a high or low rating. I would rate this hotel a 2.5 star at best. The best thing about the hotel is the location. From the outside, it appears to be a grandiose type of place but once you step inside and pay attention to details, you will find tattered rug on the staircase, chipped paint in many areas, outdated furnishings and minimum amenities. The rooms are high ceiling and roomy enough, however, the window coverings are difficult to open and close because of the height,again. Chipped paint on windows, furnishings look like they came from IKEA. Bathroom amenities include a wall dispenser with a hair and body shampoo combo, 2 bath towels and one hand towel. There are instant coffee packets and an electric water pot. The bathroom floor was not even.The phone did not work…to say we were disappointed would be an understatement. Definitely overpriced! If the town was not booked up and I was not at risk of losing monies paid, we would have left and checked into someplace else. Breakfast consisted of something that looked like egg whites scrambled, undercooked bacon and we had to ask for fruit bowl to be refilled and croissants to be refilled as the plate was empty.
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Date of stay: August 2023Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Â Consider another place to stay
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Vicki Glen, General Manager at Great Western Hotel
Responded 22 Aug 2023
Dear pennynurse, Thank you for sharing your review. The hotel is a 3 star property with the facilities required to meet the standards. We continually review our pricing and find ourselves extremely competitive for the locale and time of year. Kind regards Vicki GM
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y friend and I booked this hotel some months ago. We were looking for a decent hotel, with good facilities and thought this filled the bill unfortunately it did not. We paid just over £250 each for a 2 night stay and were somewhat shocked to find that this did not include breakfast. Despite booking together my friend was given a room the second first floor while I was placed on the 3rd. Both bedrooms were shabby and worn facilities were very basic. My bathroom was very basic, with mould on the grouting and some corners that I chose not to explore. The shower was held up by a rubber band and constantly moved while in use ensuring the floor and walls were given more of a shower than me. My friends room wasn't much better but she had the 'bonus of having a window that didn't open- great in 28 degrees with no air con. There were water damage marks on the walls in the public areas and in our bedrooms, the carpets were threadbare in places and there was a smell of dampness throughout the hotel.
When we realised breakfast was not included, we booked and paid extra forti have it on our first morning and it was awful. The restaurant manager was curt bordering on rude, gave no words of welcome and made us feel we were am inconvenience We were served stewed tea, given the wrong breakfasts and generally very poorly served by a very harrased staff who seemed to be constantly berated by the manager despite running around madly trying to serve a full restaurant chose to have breakfast at a local cafe the next day where it was half the price and of a much higher standard. The great Westerns redeeming points are a spectacular view and a pleasant lounge area.
I fully appreciate that the past 2 years have been challenging in the hospitality trade but the decline in this hotel has been going on longer than Covid I further appreciate the difficulties securing staff and
keeping them during the pandemic. I truly believe The Great Western desperately need to review their prices reducing them substantially to reflect the substandard facilities they offer. Sorry Great Western, my friend and I were completely unimpressed and will not return nor recommend
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Date of stay: July 2021Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Vicki Glen, General Manager at Great Western Hotel
Responded 25 Aug 2021
Dear GlasgowGirlG78, We appreciate all feedback, both good and bad, as it helps us to continually improve the services we offer and ultimately the guest experience. Having recently re-opened under new ownership we are fully committed to the refurbishment of many areas of our hotel over the coming months. Your comments regarding our team in the restaurant and indeed our restaurant manager surprise me greatly as my team are usually highly praised across all of our review portals and this is not the standard of service we strive to offer. I will implement some refresher training as a matter of urgency. These are indeed difficult times for the hospitality industry along with many others and we would hope that should you chose to stay with us again in the future, either here or at another Coast and Country Hotels Collection location you would enjoy a better experience. Kind regards Vicki Glen General Manager
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Apart from having to choose a star rating of at least one, the one star is for the view alone. Everything needs A LOT of TLC. Hotel is very run down, walls are cracking and dirty and in much need of a fresh paint. The beds are uncomfortable, the bathroom was very old fashioned and the shower didn't even have enough pressure to wash your hair properly. Our room was next to the laundry room clearly as you could hear the washing machines going all night which kept us awake or regularly woke us up. The tv in the room was the size of a large tablet, you could barely watch it from the bed. The food was dire, I've had better food in the hospital. Everything was cold and flavourless. We had a 2 course meal and were out in 28 minutes as we assume everything was plated ready to go. The starter came out within a minute of ordering and even the toast was cold. The lady at reception did remove the food from our room as she said this has been happening a lot. Save yourself the backache and money, don't stay here.
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Date of stay: July 2021Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Vicki Glen, General Manager at Great Western Hotel
Responded 6 Aug 2021
Dear krennie3, Thank you for taking the time to write a review. We are deeply sorry that you had a negative experience in our hotel and that we failed to meet expectations on your recent visit. We have implemented rigorous training to ensure every member of our hotel team is able to offer the standard of service that we are accustomed to sharing with our guests. We are also in the process of refreshing each of our rooms and working hard to rectify some of the teething issues caused by 15 months of closure during lockdown. If you would like to follow-up personally to discuss matters further, please do not hesitate to contact me directly through the hotel. We do hope you allow us another opportunity to share a more positive experience at one of our Coast & Country Hotels, so that we can show you how we have improved upon our early shortcomings. Best wishes, Vicki Glen General Manager
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What could be a charming seaside hotel turns out to be an extremely dated hotel where the owners are running it into the ground. Paint peeling on the walls, grubby rooms with furniture that’s over 10 years old (check the old photos from 2011 and you’ll see it’s the same stuff) and the bathroom from hell. Mattress is worn. See the pictures for the horror of it all (yes those are stained and dust covered carpets, and the shower curtain has been held up with plug chain).
Parking is available on a first come basis, but you will be assigned a bay for your stay. Overflow is available at the local public car park on the end of the road.
The bedding and towels are clean, the radiators work, and the water is hot. You’ll also get a great view if you have a sea view.
None of this will make up for the hotel though, with is squeaky floorboards (you’ll hear people in the halls and the rooms upstairs), and dilapidated fixtures. Also whilst the WiFi is available in the main hall, don’t expect to get a sniff of it from your room.
I can’t understand these 5 star reviews, the hotel is awful. Save your money and stay elsewhere.
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Date of stay: April 2021Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Â The hotel is shabby and falling apart, stay elsewhere.
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Vicki Glen, General Manager at Great Western Hotel
Responded 2 Jun 2021
Dear James M, I appreciate you taking the time to share your review following your recent stay. We value all feedback and will use this to improve our standards for the future. Following a long closed period we are working hard to refurbish areas of the hotel and make improvements where necessary. The Great Western is a grand old lady which with its age brings many quirks both good and bad. We hope you may re-consider staying with us again where we will be able to show the improvements we're making. Kind regards Vicki Glen General Manager
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Worst place I stayed at in a while,. Rooms look nothing like in the pictures. The poor musician playing to no audience in one room,while the bar is empty. Single malt selection between three malts, supposedly the haven’t received their delivery, we’re in Scotland, every pub,restaurant and probably filling station has a broader selection. The hotel probably used to be nice, 50 years ago, carpets are old,bathrooms horrid,I’m actually wearing socks in bed so that when I need to find my way to the bathroom at night i won’t get some crap on my foot.I paid 125 quid for this dump,should have slept in the car instead.tomorrows breakfast will probably be another disaster in the making. Bring your own shower gel and shampoo unless you prefer dispenser soap suds. What a dump really
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Date of stay: July 2022Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip: Don’t come here …..
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Vicki Glen, General Manager at Great Western Hotel
Responded 18 Jul 2022
Dear Dreamer30618312947, I'm sorry to see you were clearly disappointed during your recent stay. With 77 bedrooms in the hotel it is not possible to show all rooms however we have tried to show a fair image through our advertising channels. We provide hand soap and hair & body gel in all of our bathrooms via the dispensers on the walls which is quite common practice within hotels and far more environmentally friendly than individual plastic bottles. We, unfortunately, like every other business in the UK at the moment are experiencing supply issues but this is always very short term and alternatives sourced locally if not available through our normal suppliers. I wish you luck in your future travels. Kind regards Vicki
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Booked via booking.com and this states that parking is available at the hotel and no reservation is required. Our engineers turned up to be told there was no parking available and there are only 22 spaces to 70 plus rooms!! We would NEVER have booked this accommodation if we had known this - reception short with our staff which was not welcome after a drive in excess of 12 hours. We will not be returning - luckily we could park our van at work premises nearby. We have Engineers working all around the country nationwide week in, week out and we would not chance our vans with all tools and materials to be parked outside of hotel premises. Beware - hotel not as advertised!
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Date of stay: June 2021
Value
Service
Trip type: Travelled on business
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Vicki Glen, General Manager at Great Western Hotel
Responded 13 Jun 2021
Dear MidnightGuard, I am sorry to see you were disappointed with the service received at the hotel. As you state in your review we do have significantly lower parking facilities on site than we do bedrooms which does mean that we are unable to offer parking to all of our guests. Our parking is charged direct at the hotel and for the moment this is on a first come first served basis. Our booking sites give limited options for how we describe our parking offering with a choice of parking available or no parking available. Once our parking is full we always try to offer alternative suggestions which I know was the case with your engineers. Again I am sorry we did not meet your expectations on this occasion. Kind regards, Vicki Glen General Manager
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If you like a former glory hotel from the 70s then this is it. Just pay 145 per room and you get it all. A green bath, broken windows that cannot close, damping carpets, high ceilings and of course lots of noises from old floors. Just see the pics and you know what I mean.
THey advertise with clean and fresh rooms but when asking why we did not get such a room we were told that our room had new carpets and painting.
Please get me other rooms but they were the same and a discount was not possible. We stayed because we left early the next monring but its worth 50 pounds per night max.
2 positive notes. The girl at the reception was very friendly and at night it was very very quiet.
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Date of stay: May 2022
Location
Cleanliness
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Vicki Glen, General Manager at Great Western Hotel
Responded 5 Jun 2022
Thank you for the review of your stay I am sorry to see you haven’t enjoyed your stay with us. We are gradually upgrading a lot of the hotel We hope you will choose to stay with us again and see the improvements Kind regards Great Western Hotel
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We found this hotel online and booked. It is centrally placed for Oban but it has definitely seen better days. We were down in the basement with damp walls, no WiFi and the room was grey and half the electric sockets didn't work. The shower was stuck at about 4foot up and if you got it any higher the water stopped. Will say the beds were clean but it was so dark and dingy. The breakfast was poor and cooked for the start of breakfast and then kept warm so was overcooked and cold. All the fruit juices were watered down, and the tea was in flasks and also cold. Just don't bother.
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Date of stay: June 2022Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Vicki Glen, General Manager at Great Western Hotel
Responded 5 Jun 2022
Thank you for the review of your stay I am sorry to see you haven’t enjoyed your stay with us. We are gradually upgrading a lot of the hotel We hope you will chose to stay with us again and see the improvements Kind regards Great Western Hotel
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There are more places to choose from in the Oban area.
PRICE RANGE
₹5,719 - ₹10,345 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
great western oban, great western hotel oban, hotel great western
LOCATION
United KingdomScotlandArgyll and ButeOban
NUMBER OF ROOMS
79
Prices are provided by our partners, and reflect average nightly room rates, including taxes and fees that are fixed, known to our partners, and due at time of booking. Please see our partners for more details.
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