Arrochar Hotel Review

Introduction
Here is our review of the Arrochar Hotel in the village of Arrochar near Loch Lomond in Scotland, including a description of our very unsatisfactory experience there.

In a nutshell, when we arrived we were told that there had been a mistake in our booking and that we would have to stay elsewhere for the second night of our two night stay. The explanation that we were initially given blamed the booking agency for the problem. That explanation turned out to be false, as the manager later admitted. There were other problems too.

We nearly missed attending our daughter's wedding because of the problems.

Booking and confirmation
The booking was made several weeks in advance and the details were checked by telephone call to the hotel the evening before our arrival, so there can be no excuse for what happened.

It was a booking for two rooms for two nights for three adults, one child and one infant, arriving Fri 10th August 2007. The printed confirmation of the booking is dated 6 June 2007.

Arrival
On our arrival on the Friday, we were told that a mistake had been made, that we would have to move to accommodation other than the Arrochar Hotel for the second night, and that rooms had been booked for us at a guesthouse. The blame was placed on Superbreak Mini-Holidays Ltd., the booking agency through which we had made our reservation.

We were told that such errors by "the likes of Superbreak" were "unfortunately all too common."

Deception
Within minutes of being given the above explanation, we found that Superbreak had not been the cause of the problem with our booking. If we had complained to them, presumably we would have got nowhere.

What had really happened
In fact the problem had to do with a booking by Mr Duncan X [surname hidden to protect his privacy] for two rooms for two nights for two adults, two children and one infant, arriving Fri 10th August 2007.

Mr X and his party arrived at the hotel about 20 minutes before we did. They were allocated to rooms 108 and 230 but told that they could stay at the hotel for only one night.

Mr X asked to see the manager. She did some reshuffling of rooms and accommodated them for two nights in rooms other than 108 and 230.

When we checked in at the reception desk a few minutes later, we were told that Superbreak had caused a problem with our booking. We were allocated to rooms 108 and 230 for one night only.

Clearly, the manager had resolved Mr X's problem simply by giving us Mr X's original booking for one night in rooms 108 and 230, thus freeing up space so that his party could be accommodated for their second night.

Our booking with Superbreak had been sound, not only the previous evening when I checked the details by telephone, but probably even as we drove into the hotel car park. Our booking was transferred to Mr X's party, by the hotel, only minutes before we checked in at the hotel reception desk.

Since Mr X and I had made our bookings independently, doubtless the manager assumed that we and Mr X did not know each each other and so her deception would not be revealed. Her assumption was incorrect.

Three questions arise:

Is it acceptable for an hotel to cancel a booking even though it had been confirmed by telephone the previous evening? Is it lawful?

Mr X had made his booking even earlier that I had. Whatever had been the problem with his booking, just how many weeks does it take for the hotel to count the number of bookings and the number of rooms and realise that there is a problem?

Why were we initially misled so that any complaint that we had made would have gone to Superbreak, who would rightly have turned aside our complaint?

Confrontation
On confronting the manager with our knowledge of what had happened, she admitted the true situation and that someone called "Lisa" who had been on duty the previous evening had confirmed that I had telephoned and checked that the booking details were correct.

The story gets worse
We were there for the wedding of Mr X to my elder daughter, on board a boat on Loch Lomond on the Saturday.

We had all booked into the same hotel so that we could cooperate with looking after each other's children while we got ready for the wedding. Of course, with moving to the guesthouse, that became impossible.

What was particularly difficult was that there was uncertainty as to the time that the boat would depart. We had originally been told to be at the boat at 1.45pm and that it would depart at 2pm. But then there arose a possibility that the time would be 12 noon. If that had been the case, there would not have been time between the check-in time at the guesthouse (11am) and the 12 noon timing for the boat for us to move to the guesthouse, deal with the children, get ready for the wedding then drive to the boat.

One young man who sometimes manned the reception desk tried to be helpful with suggestions such as that of leaving our luggage in our rooms after the checkout time of 11am and returning mid-afternoon to move them, since our rooms were next required for people from a coach party that would not be arriving until 3pm. But that would have been impossible. He and I found no satisfactory solution that would have enabled us to attend the wedding if the worst case occurred.

He did arrange with the proprietor of the guesthouse that if the previous occupants of our rooms there left early, she would telephone the hotel to let us know.

In fact, our rooms at the guesthouse became available sometime between 9.15am and 9.30am. The proprietor did telephone the hotel with that news.

And then, almost unbelievably, the hotel did not pass the message on. So we remained at the Arrochar Hotel until 11am.

That is disgraceful. All of the reception staff knew of our predicament. I walked past the reception desk several times during the morning carrying luggage to the car. I even spoke to one of the reception staff to ask directions to the boat, yet he didn't pass on the message from the guesthouse proprietor.

Perhaps that is par for the course there. They also didn't pass on a message to Mr X regarding flowers for the boat when he was there on a previous occasion making arrangements for the wedding.

In fact, it turned out that the boat did not depart until 2pm, so we were able to be aboard and attend our daughter's wedding. But because of the message from the guesthouse not being passed on, getting ready for the wedding and dealing with the needs of two young children was very stressful and we were unable to arrive at the 1.45pm time that we had been given - we arrived at about 2.05pm and so the boat was 5 minutes late setting out.

The bride and groom arrived at about that time too, perhaps because of problems such as our not being available to help with looking after the children - perhaps because of other problems too - I don't know.

Summary and conclusion
The manager took away our booking even though the details had been confirmed by telephone the previous evening, misled us by telling us that Superbreak were at fault while knowing full well that that was not so and that therefore any complaint to them would fail, and then the hotel staff did not even pass on a message to help sort out our problem that might have caused us to miss the wedding.

My younger daughter (who was one of my party and mother of the two children) was particularly upset at what happened and regards the day as being ruined. I agree with her.

She had some extra inconvenience in that although our request that my party be located in two adjacent rooms (so that we could help her more easily with the children) had initially been accommodated (since Mr X's party were housed in two adjacent rooms which were presumably the ones that had been ours), my party ended up with two rooms that were on different floors.

The manager admitted all, provided us with a complimentary evening meal, and said that I should write to Superbreak to explain what had happened whereupon they would confirm the details with her and then refund to us our payment for the second night. She also said that we would not have to pay for the night at the guesthouse.

However, I do not regard that as sufficient recompense for the distress caused, since the day was ruined for my wife and I, and even more so for my younger daughter, and could even have led to us not being present at the wedding.

Letters sent
I have written a letter of complaint to the head office of the chain of hotels (Oxford Hotels and Inns). It was posted on 14th August. I have not yet (on 7 September) received even an acknowledgement.

I am happy to publish here the reply, if any, that I get from them, e.g. an apology, refutation of what I claim, or offer of recompense.

I have written to Superbreak as instructed by the hotel manager and have received a prompt and courteous reply, advising me that they will write to "the supplier" (presumably the Arrochar Hotel) to seek information on what happened and will reply within 21 days or as soon as they receive a reply from them.

Other aspects of the hotel
The rooms were well furnished and clean.

But the restaurant deserves special mention. Although the food was acceptable, the restaurant seemed hopelessly understaffed. We arrived for all of our meals very early and were served promptly. But at breakfast those who arrived even a little later found themselves in a long queue as the two people serving and showing people to their seats struggled to cope. We were told that there were never more than three serving staff on duty and frequently only two.

Final outcome
I did eventually receive a courteous letter from the Managing Director of Oxford Hotels and Inns, Mr Mark Edwards, apologising for the delay and offering a full refund. The letter said that he had instructed the General Manager at the Arrochar Hotel to arrange with Superbreak for the refund, and for a complimentary return visit for two nights at the hotel.

The General Manager did neither of those things, but when I showed Superbreak a copy of Mr Edwards' letter, they provided the refund immediately.

Superbreak, and the Head Office of Oxford Hotels and Inns have, in my opinion, behaved correctly throughout. I would have no qualms about using Superbreak again, or of visiting other hotels in the Oxford Hotels and Inns group. The fault lay entirely with the local management at the Arrochar Hotel.

I will not be taking up the offer of the complimentary return visit, even if I receive a letter from the hotel offering that.

Home