Caledonian Hotel — Hotel in Great Britain

This was the first time I used this hotel and I hope to not have to use it ever again! I stayed one night in one room and the second night in another room. First room had very poor Wi-Fi. Second room had no Wi-Fi. I spoke to the manager about that and he just blamed another company and said that the Wi-Fi is not included in the price anyway and it was only a bonus! How lame is that explanation: when you see advertised on booking.com free Wi-Fi, then you certainly expect the Wi-Fi to also work! And the Internet was not fixed in the second room because the wifi emitters were stretched too thin and were not covering that room! The bathroom sinks are the old (and horrible in my opinion) British style ones that have completely separated taps for hot and cold water on two different corners of the sink. The room phone in one of the rooms was not working. Also in one of the rooms three (not one or two!) bulbs were burnt. I saw the cleaning man vacuum cleaning the carpet on the corridor: he just cleaned the first 5 meters then he went to another corridor, ignoring all the dirt and some bits of paper that were on the corridor after the first 5 meters. The paint is falling off all over the place from walls and doors and door frames on the corridors and the exterior of the hotel. The carpets and pipes on the stairs and corridor are poorly fitted. The bath in one of the rooms was so scratched and with the scratches filled with dirt that I almost gave up taking a shower (not a bath!) that evening. I will stop here enumerating the bad things. The only good things about the hotel were that they cleaned with priority the second room, so that we could move into that faster, vegetarian sausages option for breakfast and that I could borrow a hair dryer from reception (rooms don't have hair dryers!). These are the only reasons the hotel get 2 stars from me...

This was only two nights I stayed in a (really old) hotel and not B n B on this trip. And any minute now I expect Jack , Wendy and Danny Torrance to jump out at me and say “ We’re Back”. REDRUM REDRUM.

The interior is very dated and worn, BUT clean !

Basic hot pot with coffee and tea options. Room was good size, bed ok. Old furniture but everything was very clean and well maintained.

Breakfast was a 'challenge". Even though it was part of reservation, you had to pick a time when you checked in. seating for 1 person wasn't possible either day and they said i could just "stand by" and wait for open table. so opted to not use their breakfast. hard to justify having a paid breakfast but no where to get or eat it. this was secondary impact of COVID protocols and not their normal way of business - but travelers should be aware of it, especially solo travelers. nothing was done to make an accommodation (eat in the patio or lobby area with plenty of table and chairs) - but that was probably due to a very new and inexperienced staff.

Bathroom was clean, well appointed but old. No shower curtain so there was water everywhere - not their fault but design flaw. Lighting in room was ok - hard to use desk, so i ended up sitting on bed to use natural light from window.

Nothing "bad" but nothing over the top "awesome" either. It is clean and basic. Very expensive for a basic motel 6 property, with a breakfast you can't partake of.

You are 5 mins walk to the ferry - which was why i picked this location. The views and walks are pretty breath taking.

Plenty of places in town to eat but make your reservation for dinner (WEEKS) before you travel. there is no "walk-in" during covid -- even though window signs say it is okay - it just...

We got a twin room with breakfast for two adults. Room decor is perfectly fine and in November the electric heater kept our room at the right temperature.

Hotel was quiet when we stayed so noise wasn’t an issue. But what I can say is that I could hear our television when walking down the corridor towards our room, so noise could be an issue during busy periods.

All told the decor in the public areas were modern, and it made the hotel a “nice place to be”.

Car park at back of hotel seemed very new and looked pretty smart with a mix of asphalt thoroughfares and gravel parking area. Good news is that there are six 22kw chargers for EV drivers. I really do hope more hotels add EV chargers. The bad news is that the electricity prices were obscene. We ended up charging at the ferry terminal for a third of the price. Long term I think the hotel will learn what price forms the right balance between supply and demand. None were in use all night, so obviously theres no revenue if it isn’t used. As an EV driver I’m strongly incentivised to charge up elsewhere for much cheaper.

Best advice for any hotel: lots of slow cheap chargers with a shared power supply (2-22kw) is far more preferable than a few high speed expensive chargers (22-50kw). They are cheaper to install, you get £350 government grant per charger (workplace charging scheme), we’re here all night, so there’s no hurry to charge

Breakfast was ok and it’s a buffet style affair, but the evening bistro food doesn’t come recommended. The food was not well prepared at all.

Would I stay here again? Yes, but do your charging in...