Cameron House — Hotel in Great Britain

Cameron House is somewhere I always wanted to stay and yet had never managed to visit despite it being near home. I booked a one night stay pre-Christmas.

Pre-arrival I received a helpful Whatsapp message informing me that I could make use of the valet parking at the turning circle. Upon arrival, my wife got out of the car to be greeted with "You OK?" by the doorman. Not the welcome to Cameron House that we were expecting and not near the level of welcome given at the Balmoral, Kimpton and other 5* Scottish hotels.

We entered the hotel, walking past discarded McDonald's wrappers to reception where the check-in was quick and efficient. I was quickly in my room and well informed about the key hotel facilities. Check-in was great but cleaning of the entrance could be improved - if I spot the discarded wrappers then I'm sure staff could have too.

The room itself was lovely, a modern loch view room with balcony. It was a good size and furnished beautifully. Great view over the loch. The smart TV had YouTube, Netflix and other services, however the Cast functionality wasn't working. The TV also had a selection of premium channels such as Sky Sports.

We were staying for our 7th Anniversary and the guest experience team left a few cocktail vouchers for us which was a nice touch.

Housekeeping was below expectations. There were crumbs on the desk, glitter on the floor and the desktop mirror was covered in fingerprints. The lower shelf on the bathroom vanity had a layer of dust like it hadn't been wiped for weeks. The towels and bedding was spotless thankfully otherwise I'd have asked to move room or have just went home. On reflection I should have asked to move room as the bathroom drain had a strong sewage smell. My wife thought the same but neither of us wanted to moan about it and have the hassle of changing when it was our anniversary.

Room service breakfast was fantastic. The food quality was excellent and it was served on time and with a smile. As our rate had breakfast included we only had to pay the tray charge of £12.

We visited the Great Scots bar three times during our stay. In the afternoon the bar was quiet and the service was spot on with drinks served quickly by a waiter who had some good chat. Pre-dinner the bar was busy and we sat at a barstool for over 10 minutes without being served. The waitress eventually enquired if the barman had served us and apologized. Even an acknowledgement of "I'll be with you as soon as possible" from the barman would have been nice. There were two manager types with jackets on hanging around not doing much - if they would help out then the service would be a lot better! After dinner there was also a long wait to get served and the guest in front of me complained he had waited 30 minutes. I got served in about 15 minutes. We chose not to have another drink as the wait was excessive. An extra barman or two would make a massive difference to the service levels and I bet would increase overall income when the extra drink orders are accounted for.

The Cameron Grill was an odd experience. The food was mostly excellent except for a cold bearnaise sauce with the steak which the waitress insisted is meant to come cold. Sorry but why would we want a hot steak with cold sauce? Yes bearnaise can be a pain to keep warm as it splits easily so make it fresh or remove it from the menu.

The service in the restaurant was a little different. "This is your amuse bouche - little picky bits that we give you for free" was one classic line I remember. Bread (chargeable) was served without side plates and with an odd tasting butter that the waiter failed to inform us was chicken skin butter. Wine glasses were not refilled. The overall impression was that the staff were undertrained and not confident in providing the level of service you'd expect at a restaurant of this standard. Which is a shame as it's expensive and the food is excellent.

My overall experience was underwhelming. There are lots of things the hotel does well but equally there are ...

We went to Cameron House on Loch Lomond with great expectations and anticipation of the award-winning spa. Unfortunately, our hopes were only partially fulfilled. The hotel is in a fantastic location directly on the loch, the lobby is beautiful and you receive a very warm welcome (normally, we were lucky enough to be greeted by Louise, who gave us the impression, that we should feel honoured, that she took time out of her day to check us in). Unfortunately, our room was not ready upon arrival (2:45pm) and we were told to wait in the always a tad to cool Great Scots Bar and that they would call us once the room was ready. This never happened, so we ended up walking to the reception after more than one hour of waiting only to learn, that the room was available for quite some time already. However, there was more than one point that detracted from our stay. The first room (and actually the second one as well) were not cleaned to the extent you would expect in such a hotel (dirty shower, contact lenses in the sink, …). In addition, we could hear the lift very loudly every 15 minutes in the first room. However, we were immediately offered a new room - by the very accommodating concierge service (in this case Collin bf Eddie, but apparently every of the concierges is very very nice and helpful). The food in the hotel is fantastic. Especially the Tamurrini was excellent and also the food in the Grill was very good. The breakfast could be better, but the service is not what you would expect from a five star hotel. We often had had to wait for a longer time to order drinks and food. Since clearing the table seems to be a foreign word here more often, you could happen to sit on a table full of dirty plates for your entire meal. Especially that first of all the tables occupied by guests should be cleared and not the empty ones, that didn't go down well with everyone. In addition, the service is often slow and inattentive. From what we are used to, there is one golden rule in service: never walk empty handed, which unfortunately is the standard here. Only the service at Tamburrini was up to par. The food in the Boathouse was unfortunately not edible.

Now for the biggest weak point (in our eyes). The spa costs 40 pounds for 2 hours of use per person, which is outrageous considering the room rates, we’ve never experienced guests having to pay for a hotel spa (a spa which is being advertised on social media a lot). We felt, that this hidden cost is hidden intentionally in order to generate more revenue. Moreover, the spa is only accessible by hotel shuttle. Especially if you discover the hotel via booking or social media, you cannot know that and also the website of the hotel is not very clear with that. Further, the spa is nice but nothing special. However, the treatment was good. The infinity pool with view to the golf course is nice and also you can start a whirlpool programme.

The alternative offered is absolute horror. The hotel has a very large pool (with lots of children, which is to be expected in a family-friendly hotel), a sauna and a steam room. There were tissues and cups in the sauna, the floor had sweat stains - we didn't dare go into the steam room. The shower in front of the sauna smelled of urine. In addition, there is not even any lounge chair by the pool, only regular chairs - and there is no sign of a relaxation room. So if you want to have a wellness holiday, this is only conditionally the right hotel, especially compared to spa landscapes in South Tyrol or Switzerland, this one is very disappointing.

The beds are nice and comfortable. In general, our room was nice and charming, as well as the rest of the hotel interior. A lot of details and matching decoration to wallpapers and furniture. And even though the service was slow, everyone is very nice and tries their best. It‘s a nice hotel with a lot of potential, most of the issues we‘ve experienced could be solved by more staff (which is a general problem in nearly every hotel, we are aware of, but that doesn't make it any better for...

Our experience started with dinner at La Vista restaurant. The restaurant gave us the impression of a local bistro cafe: no tablecloths, very loud, tables not ready for the number of people on the booking, kids crying. We ordered mushroom arancini, whitebait, beef carpaccio, soft shell crab, and two grilled swordfish. Mushroom arancini had too much rice in it, soft shell crab was too dry, swordfish was too small, as like it was kne slice cut in half, and too raw. Whitebait and beef carpaccio were lovely. Service was just like in a bistro - wine wasn't served, we had to serve it ourselves. After all that food, we still felt hungry and decided to order a small Bosciola pizza to share. The pizza was quite nice. Overall, we thought the food was overpriced for what it was and considering that we felt hungry after it all. After that we had to wait for about 30 mins for the shuttle bus to come to pick us up, because the restaurant is not in the hotel, and it was a long and cold walk on high heels. The day after: breakfast was lovely, then we had a walk (there is a small town and shopping centre near the hotel). Mini golf was closed. Then we had 1h for lunch before heading to the Spa, we ordered a poke bowl with spicy salmon at the Tavern. After about 15 mins, we were told that they ran out of salmon and can only do chicken. We said we had smoked salmon this morning for breakfast and suggested getting it there, but the chef said it's not possible. Then, some time later, the waiter said that the chef can get a salmon fillet somewhere instead, but at that point we'd have been too late for the Spa. We ended up going for 2 starters just to eat something. Because of all this, we missed the Spa shuttle. The Spa area is about 10 min drive from the hotel, and one needs to take a shuttle bus to get there, which goes every 1h. You've to bring your swimming gear with you and get changed there, which is inconvenient. Spa facilities were good and had a good choice but all in need of cosmetic refurbishment. There was mould in places and damaged paint, bathrobes and towels were quite worn out, ladies showers were full of hair. We had 2 hours in Spa (which is probably too much, but that's just what you get as part of the price), and a treatment booked. The Swedish massage was very nice. The pregnancy massage was quite light. We asked to go stronger, but the request was declined. Then we had to wait for 45 mins to get the shuttle bus back to the hotel. We asked for an earlier transfer but were told it's not possible. Our dinner was booked in the Grill restaurant. We ordered mackerel starter, chateaubriand, and 2 desserts. For drinks, we asked for 2 glasses of wine but weren't offered to taste it. 2 full glasses were brought to us, and unfortunately, we didn't like the wine. We asked to change it for something else and were told that it's not possible. We asked to speak to the manager, who also said she would have to chatge us for that wine anyway. We said fine, we just won't drink it. About 30 mins later, some other manager approached us and kindly changed the wine. The menue had 2 sides per steak. Since we ordered a chateaubriand for 2, we ordered 3 sides (thinking we're actually 1 side short), but when the bill came, we were charged us £7 for the 3rd side. So they assume that you only need 2 sides for 2 people with chateaubriand, which costs £115. All in all, there was nothing special about the food - it was very overpriced. The service was good, other than the issue with the wine. After that, we passed by reception to ask for a late checkout, but were told that it's not possible. Then we asked to order us a large estate car as we had 4 large bags, but were also told that it's not possible (apparently it was school time and there were no taxis of that size available.) We eventually ordered a large taxi without any issues ourselves. The bed in the room was unusually high and hard to climb, the room had one small window under the roof, we had to ask for water in the room and pay for it. Not a 5 star hotel,...