Cambus o'May Hotel — Hotel in Great Britain

I booked this hotel in January 2025 for a stay at the beginning of August 2025 in order to visit Balmoral Castle. We were travelling some 435 miles up from the Midlands. The reviews were good and it was reasonable in price. A double room was £122 for Saturday and £112 for Sunday and this included breakfast. It’s listed as rustic Highland charm, good home-cooked food, and very comfortable. However, the reality of the hotel is somewhat different to be honest. We arrived at reception and rang the bell as there was nobody there … we were then met by a very rude individual who actually struggled to understand some of our questions. Throughout our stay we found this person to be generally rude towards people, he has no idea of good customer service or an understanding of peoples requests. Our room was small which is fine as I understood it to be a normal double room, the bedlinen looked to be clean but not ironed and the bathroom was small again but very clean. The biggest problem is the bed, it was barely a double and therefore both of us had bad backs the following day as it was impossible to turn over without hitting your partner in the face. Evening meal is paid for by the course one meal was fish and chips and the other meal was lasagna and salad which we sent back to the kitchen as it arrived cold and then when it came back, it was virtually inedible. The meal on the second night was very late as we were told the kitchen were very busy and couldn’t accommodate everybody because they hadn’t done the bookings in the right order and then when we were served it was rushed and we weren’t offered any desserts. The same guy who had been working on reception and was also working in the dining room on his own and he was completely out of his depth. He couldn’t pull a pint. He couldn’t deliver food to tables with any kind of good manners and he couldn’t understand requests at the bar. We had been told that breakfast is only continental breakfast and nothing else. Whilst we didn’t have a problem with this and it was a very varied continental breakfast, it certainly didn’t state that when I made the booking . When we returned to our room after being out on the first day we found that the towels had’nt been changed, the bed hadn’t been made in fact nobody has been in the room to service it. . When I queried this, I was told ‘you didn’t put your sign on your door so we didn’t bother to do it’. You would expect a room to be made up and you wouldn’t need to request this. However, all that aside the hotel itself is also an issue. It is scruffy inside and outside. The furniture which is described as shabby chic is so old and warn it’s really very unattractive. There are random bits of furniture all over that are too dangerous to sit on particularly outside. Plastic tablecloths and dirty floors are unappealing. We had a long chat with the owner who asked us for feedback and we did give him all the various points noted above. He is a lovely guy who completely acknowledged that there were some significant staffing issues which he knew he had to deal with. He also said he had spent four years so far working on the hotel to get it to a better standard and he knew there was still a lot of work to be done. In all honesty I could not possibly recommend this hotel to anyone as I have absolutely no confidence that the staffing issues will be sorted out, the kitchen issues will be sorted out, The housekeeping issues will be sorted out and the general decor changed and improved. In my opinion, it needs a complete overhaul to bring it up to any kind of reasonable standard. Whilst it might be cheap to stay at people do still want a certain level of food, comfort and cleanliness and unfortunately this was...

We stayed at the Cambus O May hotel for a week at the beginning of April. The hotel is very charming, traditional and cosy located in its own private woodland with lots of areas to explore within the grounds! It’s was only around 10 mins drive to Ballater and there is also a very nice scenic walk from the hotel to Ballater! A short drive to Balmoral Castle, Royal Lochnagar Distillery which is a must visit! Braemar is a little further but very easy to get to if you have a car. Alternatively there is a good bus service and a bus stop close to the hotel. ||||We stayed in the Kennel Apartment which gave us the best of both worlds having our own self contained cosy space with Kitchen facilities and the amenities of the main hotel restaurant and bar only a short walk away within the grounds. The apartment was well designed and very clean with all the amenities we needed! We couldn’t have asked for any more. ||||Breakfast was included each morning with a good spread of continental options. There is no cooked breakfast option however we didn’t feel that we missed out as the continental options were plentiful. We ate at the hotel restaurant a few times also during our stay and all of the meals we had were home cooked and very tasty! The kitchen could accommodate for vegetarian options as well as long as they were made aware beforehand!The bar was well stocked and had a good selection of whisky’s and drinks from the local area. ||||Overall we were made to feel very welcome during our stay and nothing was too much of an ask! They really have created a hidden gem! A massive thank you to Derek, Berkal (apologise if spelt wrong) and the Chef who made our stay truly unforgettable, always very warm and welcoming! The team were simply amazing! ||||We are already looking at planning our next visit and can’t wait...

Had high hopes for this hotel based on the reviews but was bitterly disappointed! On arrival, check in was just a bit strange! Instructions just read out in a hurried way, find your own way and get on with it kind of thing. The mattress was the worst id ever slept on! You could feel every spring and lump in it! The water saving devise on the shower meant you had to spend 3 times as long in there to get shampoo out of your hair! Breakfast was so disappointing! Quality was awful and basic as you can get. On taking a walk around the woods, there is debris dumped everywhere from what looks like some new bathrooms that have been fitted in the hotel. This hotel needs a LOT of money spent on it, it’s extremely tired !! 3 stars given as lots of parking, good location, very quiet and the gentleman at breakfast was charming...