The Cairndale Hotel & Spa — Hotel in Great Britain

This is without a doubt, the worst experience my daughter (34) and I, (61), have ever had in any hotel and if it were possible I would be leaving a minus score.||My daughter booked a SpaCation package for the first night (£329) and a further deluxe king room for the second night (£219) as I had just gone through major surgery a few weeks prior to this and it was meant to be time to relax and recover. The end result was anything but that, as my daughter became violently sick 12 hours after eating a chicken burger in their bar.||We had to call NHS 24 at 2am who reckoned she had food poisoning as did I (I’m a charge nurse in infection control).||I’m not going to waste any more of my time on this awful hotel explaining every single episode of disaster during our stay, and also if you have read previous reviews you will have picked up that the manager is very passive aggressive towards any kind of negative comments, and fires back at the customers who paid ridiculous amounts of money to stay in the most dated hotel ever.||I’ll give you a short run down of our issues as I feel it is important to warn other hard working customers thinking they are planning a lovely time away, yet that is not what you will get (unless you are influencers, and then the ‘fake’ treatment will be ladled on).||Arrived for £60 afternoon tea. No actual hot water for the tea having asked 3 times. Cakes were hard, tiny scones, rock hard. Just laughed between us really as we’d just arrived and were tired so let it pass.||First bedroom, bed like a brick, no WiFi, fusty smell, asked to move, 28 degree heat. Second room still smelt rank, one bed so soft you could feel the base right through it. Gave up and thought we’d go for a swim. Like others have commented, extra £50 for 2 hours in their pool, not worth it. Rooms were 28 degree heat and no air con.||Dinner in the bar, 8:30 pm, disgusted look from the lad behind the bar when we asked for a table but told to sit wherever. Then heard the manager and bar man discussing us saying we hadn’t booked a table. You didn’t need to?? Food was mediocre but we were hungry from the awful afternoon tea.||Asked for water at the spa as no water machines. Given warm water from a young girl with no training clearly.||Next laugh, ordered hot chocolate at nearly £5 a pop, opened up the paper cup to find half a cup of watery chocolate just like you get from the vending machines at a council pool. Half cold. One piece of cheesecake 2x1 inch, £9.50 dried up at the edges. Disgusting.||Breakfast was laughable. No teaspoons, dreary room, tea looked like strong coffee! Asked for new tea in its own pot. Only 4, 2 inch pastries dried up left at 8:30am, hot food very unappetising so had none. Bread had clearly been out for ages as dried up. We left.||So many other things I could say but would take all night. Suffice to say, my daughter became very ill after eating only in this hotel.||I am still on strong painkillers after my op, so having cancelled our Italian evening meal due to her violent sickness and diarrhoea, I took myself to Morrisons across the road as I could not risk eating anything else in this hotel. Later accused by the hotel director of eating ‘processed’ food in our room. He had gone through our tied up bin bags 🤣🤣. Clearly I was not allowed to eat even though I was not ill.||We checked out, the front staff were revolting, rude and we felt unsafe. One manager called me ‘my dear’! Having spoken with the director of this hotel, as previously stated by other guests, we received a very arrogant, passive aggressive response. It reminded me of a school fight with the big boys.||Environmental health have been informed and it has taken 2 weeks for my daughter to get over the vomiting and diarrhoea.||Make up your own minds……||Now over to Matthew Wallace Jnr for his damage...

*On reflection; 3 stars was too harsh for this great business, have now edited to 4 star review👍

The summary is; great spa and hotel. The staff here are a credit to the hospitality industry. Overall I recommend the Cairndale Hotel and Spa, it has such a nice atmosphere, and all the guest were pleasant as well as (and possibly thanks to) the staff.

First off; every single last staff member here was so friendly, made us feel so welcome and possibly provided the best service I have experienced in Scotland/UK, customer needs are their priority.

We were welcomed with a smile and heated face clothes to warm our hands when we arrived😊, we were also given smoothies on arrival at the spa (shout out and thank you to Claire from the spa).

The spa is fresh and new, with a heated pool, water beds, several saunas (red light, and a salt sauna) and steam rooms, a hot tub and an ice bath. For additional charges, there is also a rasul facility, a hamam, and a room with two private bathtubs. You are provided with a lovely robe, slippers, and all the towels that you may need. Our day included lovely massages, complete with a spell in the relaxation room afterward😊. One gripe about the spa is that only the salt-sauana has a timer, the others don't.

I've seen reviews that complain about the rooms here: They have a metal key, the door is not self locking, and there are clear signs of wear; they are indeed a stark contrast to the very modern spa, however they are clean and they are fully functional, and that's the main thing. The cracks in the tiles etc is negligible, and not worth complaining about; the drone of the air ducts outside the room window was the only room feature worth complaining about, luckily the noise did not interfere with sleep. The bed was clean, firm, and comfortable. WiFi was okay on laptop (useless on phone). (No room safe if that's what you're looking for, was fine for me). *You also get premium quality complimentary coffee and hot chocolate sachets, along with PG Tips teas, in the room.

As well as the spa; the restaurants here are very fresh and modern with a happening atmosphere. The food was my main gripe; we asked to know who their food providers were in advance - management did not know who their food suppliers are. At the last minute, after I arrived, I got told that they have many food suppliers and two of them are BidVid and Thompson's; this was nowhere near enough time for me to research if they provide real food or poisonous gmo's, so I had to go without food despite paying for the experience. Menu is mainly burgers and fish; slim pickings for gluten-free vegans. I had to clean the crumbs off my chair at breakfast. The breakfast buffet options were mainly dead animals, some gluten, and some dairy - not a fruit or veg in sight. The person I was with ate here, and enjoyed all of the food they experienced. They recommend the Caesar Salad and the brownie, and said that the food here was better than that of other hotels in Scotland.

Summary: The hotel and spa were great, and the staff; amazing, the only let-down for me at the end of the day was the food which lowered the star rating here (and I will admit that I am an awkward customer, but have...

We booked this hotel 6mths ago. Numerous emails and calls to confirm options wanted. Arrived early on the Thursday, Staff were pleasant and friendly or room was ready. However we had a call on route to say due to an issue our booked and paid for treatment in the new spa had to be changed, we dropped our stuff off and went exploring the town. The hotel was quiet. Friday breakfast the usual self service buffet. The hotel was busy at check in time due to a Soul Weekender. This didn't cause us any issues until 7pm the set dinner menu & restaurant was chaos. We asked for a table for 6. We were seated as a couple at a table for 4 and the other 4 placed at a different table further away despite the table next to us being empty. Then we sat for 20 mins whilst others were seated and received their food before us. I had to mention this before being asked what we would like. I repeated I required GF options, it fell on deaf ears. The food was ok, small portions, Luke warm. The remainder of the night was ok at the music venue. Saturday breakfast no issues as we were down early-ish 8:30am. Saturday evening meal, having reminded them of the chaos from the night before we were seated together at a table for 6. Again quite a wait to be served. Again reminding them of a GF option. The 5 with me were all served and had finished each course before I was given my option, not good. I had to keep asking when the food was being served if it was GF. They took it away apologising before eventually retuning with the correct one. There is no continuity with the service. Very chaotic. So simple to seat the guest. Immediately taken their table number, their order and then serve them in the order that they are seated. Sunday breakfast again as we were early it was ok. We had paid fully for another night's dinner b&b but decided to check out on the Sunday morning. Having booked & paid in full for 4 nights, two spa treatments and numerous amounts of alcohol consumed over ,3 days, it is absurd to then ask guests staying at the hotel to pay £45 just to use the pool spa area. So as there is nothing much else to do in the hotel and the WiFi is non existing, especially in the room. We...