The Gilvenbank Hotel

Stayed 2 nights here , the room was immaculate and the bed was very comfortable, the staff were polite and curteous , Hazel who served us breakfast was very pleasant to deal with and did her best the 2 nd day when we missed breakfast to make sure we could access cereal and also made us toast , would definitely go back , the only negative is I would have liked something in the room with the breakfast times and menu

Service: excellent Accommodation: Very clean General: very impressed with this little gem. Food was lovely and you can’t fault the Scottish breakfast. The staff couldn’t do enough for us to ensure we enjoyed our stay. Not sure why there are so many negative reviews about this hotel which quite frankly cannot be true. Try it yourselves and you won’t be disappointed.

Poor to no greeting on arrival. Girl was obviously not interested in her job,no enthusiasm, no info . Rooms very basic ,only about 5 channels on TV,no BBC 1 or 2. Beds hard, On the good side nice breakfast. But again staff not very friendly ,no morning chat or smiles

We arrived at Gilvenbank on May 12th and received a warm, friendly welcome from the man on reception. We were very pleased with our room, which was obviously new and spotlessly clean. After a 6 hour drive all we really wanted to do was have a meal and get some rest. After our meal we went back to our room. We could hear the television in the next room, which, at the time, was acceptable. However as the evening went on it became louder and louder and by 1 A.M. it was so loud that we could hear every word as clearly as if it was on the table next to our bed and our "neighbours" were shouting at each other over the noise of their television. By 2:20A.M. we'd really had enough so I rang reception and asked if someone could please ask the people in the next room to turn the TV off or at least down. The man I had spoken to knocked on our door and asked what the problem was. We told him the situation (though surely he could hear for himself what the problem was!) He actually said that it was a private room and that they had every right to have their television on therefore there was nothing he could do. We said that surely as it was now 2: 30A.M. we, and other guests, had every right to sleep. He became very argumentative and repeated that it was a private room and they had every right to have the TV on. He said there had never been any complaints about noise before. We asked if we could be moved to another room but he said NO and that the hotel was fully booked. By now the argument was becoming quite heated so my husband said just to leave it as we would be disturbing other guests and we would speak to the Manager in the morning to which he replied "I am the manager!" He eventually agreed to ask our "neighbours" to turn the volume down. However he had to knock on their door 4 times before they answered. Granted they did reduce the volume but kept the TV on all night. Next morning we packed and were ready to leave even though we had paid for 4 nights. However I decided to make our complaint known, especially the attitude of the "Manager" rather than just walk out. I spoke to VICKY who was on reception that morning. I cannot thank her enough for her empathy and professionalism. She immediately offered us another room (fully booked "Manager"?) offered us a refund for our first night and assured us that the couple in the next room were leaving the hotel that morning. As we had travelled a long way to visit elderly relatives and been assured by Vicky that the couple were leaving we decided to stay at least another night. The rest of our stay was absolutely fine. We only had breakfast during our stay, which was good and plentiful. The young lady serving breakfast (sorry we didn't get your name) was always cheerful, helpful and chatty. These were the only 4 members of staff we had dealings with during our stay 3 of which are a credit to the hotel.

We had an excellent High Tea. Food was just delicious.Great choice. So reasonably priced. Can’t praise staff enough for their first class service. Very attentive. We will certainly be returning. If you have not been certainly worth trying.

Lovely and very friendly staff excellent service and very happy faces special mention to the bar manager Erin for the brilliant hospitality, great cocktails and great food, very comfortable areas and very clean, we will try to come back to the future,many thanks Erin