Drimsynie Holiday Village — Hotel in Great Britain

On the whole this is an excellent place for a family holiday in Scotland. The complex has plenty to do for all ages, the food is consistently great, and the staff are professional and polite across the board (of note, Ryan, Lewis and Conner all stood out during our stay). It is also good as a hub to explore the surrounding Trossachs.

Whilst we would certainly recommend Drimsynie to anyone looking for a Scottish break (and have done so already), there are a few things they could do to improve their profile and experience even further;

Surcharges for WiFi seems very outdated. WiFi should always be free.

The largest bed in our lodge was a double. This was very cramped. The mattress was also extremely firm. I would urge the estate to upgrade all double beds to Queen or King and to perhaps go the happy medium route in terms of firmness and apply medium grade across the board.

In a similar vein, the lodges could do with a lick of paint and bit more modernisation in the finishes (curtains, surfaces, etc.)

The week we stayed was off peak so expectedly there were certain aspects that were not fully serviced. Fun Factory seemed to be one of these. As part of the kids entertainment, Fun Factory was supposed to go ahead between 7-8pm every night. However after speaking to one of the girls who ran the entertainment, she explained they only did this when a minimum of 5 children were in attendance. This however did not seem to be the case as the very next night there were at least 5 kids and still no Fun Factory. There were also nights where the 6-7pm slot for the kids was filled with only a 5 minute visit from a Squirrel character and a table of drawing materials, both of which is great, but if nothing is being done to keep kids in the vicinity until the Fun Factory is due to start, it feels as if kids are being discouraged to stay around until 7pm so Fun Factory doesn't go ahead. Needs to be more of a concerted effort midweek to ensure Fun Factory goes ahead.

The estate boasts a video arcade. which is good fun for mid range kids, teens, and even younger children. Even us adults were happy to get involved. Where it let us down a bit was in the quality of machines, which seemed Blackpool standard at times. Grapple machine games (the kind where you try to pick up a teddy or toy with a grapple claw), the difficulty in which should actually be unearthing a prize from the pile, would drop toys once they were picked up. There were also a number of machines that awarded tickets to be exchanged for prizes from a cabinet, however it seemed like the prizes on offer were vastly overvalued when compared to how much money you had to insert to win the required amount of tickets, eg. a jelly sweet which would cost 30-50p in a newsagent, required 100 tickets. In our experience there for a week, 10 tickets were awarded per £1 inserted into a machine, so by that logic, a 30p sweet was actually costing us £10. This is a mark up of over 3,000%. Truly dreadful when you think about it and I would wonder about the appropriate code of ethics on this sort of thing. The estate's approach to this could do with a review.

Restaurant staff putting down cutlery, glasses, water and piping hot meals in front of

Where do I start?.. Booked a lodge via wowcher voucher . Paid extra for our 2 dogs spoke with someone from cove , informed them my hubby had terminal cancer and I asked about hot tub for him to relax call handler who informed me £120 extra for hot tub which we could not afford at the time. We paid for our dogs and recieved a booking confirmation which was a 3 bedroom pet friendly lodge with hot tub. We were excited and looking forward to our break as my hubby had been unwell and our previous 5 day break at Logierait for our anniversary in June It did not go well due to to my hubby being increasingly unwell resulting in him almost dying due to an adrenal crisis and being admitted to hospital as an emergency. . I had been off work with stress and this break was for both of us to relax and spend time with some of my family. Fast forward to the 1st sept . We booked in and were given lodge keys , on arrival at lodge we noticed there was no hot tub and only 2 bedrooms. I contacted reception and my son showed Mark on reception my booking confirmation . He checked and said it had not been transferred on to their system and was on another system He assured me that that we would be accommodated with 3 bedroom with hot tub either later on or next morning at latest.. we did not unpack and left most things in the car as we were expecting to be moved . my hubby took one of our dogs a walk . While only a short distance from the lodge a couple of men had unleashed dogs ( against policy) and one of the dogs attacked my dog and bit my hubby’s hand . I informed reception and photographed the men who were quite aggressive and intoxicated . . I as a nurse attended to my hubby’s injuries .. Next morning we loaded everything back into our cars in anticipation of getting moved to a new lodge with hot tub. I phoned reception just after 10am and was informed things were getting ready and someone would phone back. By 12:30 I phoned again and still nobody called back . Then around 2pm I went up to reception and was told we were not getting moved . The woman I spoke to was rude I was upset . She said we were not getting a hot tub as it was wowcher, she went to listen to my call, and said she heard nothing about a hot tub ( how did I know it was £120 to upgrade then?) This obnoxious , rude condescending woman kept using the word “ I have empathy” which she indeed did not have. . She kept going on about the costs of cleaning the lodges . I asked to speak to manager and she would not let me and stated the general manager agreed with her. By now we were over 1/3 into our break and had not even unpacked . She was not even interested that my hubby had been bitten by unleashed dogs.. we were in our second day and I was stressed and crying. She said if I paid £120 now then I could get a hot tub . I was not happy and refused,. She said if we were not happy we could go home. I then went back to lodge to get my hubby and take him to local Gp who also wasn’t interested in looking at his wounds or giving him a tetanus.as my hubby is on cancer treatment . he advised A&E I decided to try and use facilities (pool and jacuzzi ) this shut early as it was now “off season” I was so disappointed. I can’t believe they did not honour the upgrade and the shabby way we were treated is disgraceful . Why are you sponsoring teenage cancer trust when your staff have treated a terminal cancer patient so badly? Mark on reception is a credit to the company . He gave us a phone on his next shift back to check if we were ok and asked if we got moved to new lodge ok, we informed him this did not happen he was very kind and apologetic. Won’t ever be back to Drinsymie village . Worst...

I want to start by saying we had such a wonderful weekend staying at the Hotel and would highly recommend, there are however a few areas that require improvement.

Very warm welcome at reception,

Dog friendly!!! :D

Massive thank you to Tim, from Cove adventures. 1000% get booked in for canoeing, very informative, points out the wildlife around the loch and we even stopped in at a cafe along the way. Wonderful experience. Worth the money spent.

Unfortunately our massage was cancelled due to sickness, I hope Shirley recovers soon. Not overly disappointed as there is so much to experience!

The view restaurant, we found breakfast was excellent service and the food was lovely However come evening it’s a very different experience. BOOK A TABLE. Before we arrived I emailed to book a table but had no response and from the information emails before arriving it said no reservations necessary, so I wasn’t worried about the lack of response and neither was the receptionist when I explained. Come Saturday night at 5pm when the view bar opens we were 2nd in line and I asked for a table for two. Manager Carl informed us there is no availability until 8pm and that we should have booked. I explained I had emailed to book with no response and was also told it wasn’t necessary, Carl was very defensive from the beginning but asked that we take a seat until the other dinner guests had been seated. 40 minutes later Carl found us a table. (it was not busy), I explained to Carl it also states online no reservations necessary and asked that he contacts the management to have it amended as many more frustrated customers will come along. I understand he is probably just as frustrated as us and was pleasant eventually, we ordered the mac and cheese, the spicy chicken Cajun pasta but were disappointed as both dishes were very bland. Not to worry it happens.

Pool, sauna and steam room were brilliant, remember £1 for the lockers.

Had the Euros football playing on a large screen in the rob roy bar. Singers on both nights, also the Fox bar which is more a pub atmosphere for adults, as the rob Roy is very family oriented

Plenty for the kids to do.

Beautiful hikes all around.

Bar staff were excellent, although had trouble with the bar manager. Drinks are very expensive. I ordered a £7.55 large glass of white wine, when I went for another I was going to be charged for the £9 odd wine, when I questioned it I was informed it’s because it’s a different wine, so I asked for the one I had before. He poured me the correct one but I didn’t like that he automatically gave me the more expensive one without asking. Especially when prices are already so high. Didn’t feel he had the best rapport with the bar staff, very huffy in front of customers if they made mistakes.

Check out for the hotel is 11am which is excellent but I popped out with my bags to the car and wanted to return to the room to use the bathroom and the cleaner was in at 10.30 when I hadn’t even handed the key back. I informed reception on my way out and the gentleman on was very apologetic.

A few hiccups but overall a wonderful experience and would go back.

It’s so easy to see the bad feedback but it honestly was an amazing stay! I only point these out in hope you can save yourself the trouble of the same experience and hope the feedback can be used to improve the...