Duck Bay Hotel & Restaurant — Restaurant in Scotland

Updates at bottom Worst experience I've ever had at a hotel. Myself & husband were gifted a £300 gift voucher from his mother towards our honeymoon to spend within the Cawley chain. We decided to spend £239 of that on a “stunning NEWLY REFURBISHED Premier Suite” of which we only had 20 hours access due to check in & check out times. On first arrival we relaxed with a cider to enjoy the last night of our honeymoon. We put the heaters on as the room was very cold & we could hear the outside water, thinking the door was open we tried to close it. The far right side of the sliding door had a gap, the fresh cold air was just coming in. There was no silicone or sealant on this panel which there should have been to ensure the room was weatherproofed. The bad weather amber warning was obviously contributing to how severe we were being affected with the wind howling through, not satisfactory to have a relaxing time. I went to reception asked for someone to have a look at it, she told me maintenance had finished for the day, she told me she’d get an manager. She then came alone herself to inspect as management was busy in the restaurant, she deemed it important so we did get a visit from an manager who told us he only handles the restaurant & gets called when maintenance is away. He tried to push the door back into place which only helped a bit & temporarily as the windy moved it again he said he would look for something to fill or cover the gap in the door to no resolve. We thought we had tape in our cars emergency box but didn’t have enough for the full length of the door. I went back to reception & asked to be moved which we were told there were no other rooms available. I asked if I’d be able speak to a manager that deals with the hotel as £239 for a room that isn’t weatherproofed or sufficient isn’t worth it or good enough. Another manager came he also looked at it & apologised that nothing could be done & I’d need to email as no one on site had the ability to reimburse. He asked if we wanted to stay or to just leave. Of course we both at this point had drank alcohol & I was not prepared to drink drive back to Edinburgh. we had no other choice but to stay. He left a with another apology. We went for a meal we were asked if we had allergies I replied with celiac disease they catered to my dietary requirements until desert, there wasn’t a separate gluten free menu but plenty gluten free options available which was great. We both ordered a gluten free sticky toffee sundae. Both came with a wafer on top which in no way was gluten free. Any item identified as gluten free on a menu should be presented as gluten free & not changed from the menu. I asked if it was gluten free the waitress panicked & returned it to the kitchen. They simply removed the wafer & presented it to me contaminated. I requested a new one. Again another unnecessary stress that effected no one bar myself & husband That was hands down the worst night myself & husband have ever had, it was cold, noisy with the howling wind coming through the gap & noise of the water (we could hear the obviously more premium suit up stairs talking to one another late until around 2am & again around 6am) & moving around at all hours the curtains both sets had a halo of light right round them until some point later the outside lights were turned off. The whole duration of our stay was uncomfortable, stressful & unpleasant. We were meant to be staying in the area until later on Saturday 21st October but both are so tired & stressed we went home early.

Email sent to head office 21st October 2023 STILL NO RESPONSE 24th November 2023. RESENT EMAIL 3 TIME Update they apologised have zero interest or intention to refund or make right and went back to ignoring my email....

The only thing good about this hotel is the location, with it set on the waterfront. Everything else was shockingly bad. For 250pounds a night, you’d expect to have a decent level of service and appreciation for your business. From the instant you checkin the reception and servers during breakfast, they were visibly unhappy people and projected it on the customers. It’s a shame because This area is beautiful and everyone else we’ve met were so nice. My suggestion to everyone is to pay the extra and stay at the Cameron House. The place is much nicer with everyone appreciating your business. Night and Day difference compared to The Duck Bay.

Horrible First Impression: When we walked in at 11:45am, there was no “Welcome to DuckBay hotel, how can I help you”. It was a “Did you pay for early checkin?” I said yes, we did. Her response was your room won’t be ready till 12:00pm, please check back then. I asked her if we can start the paperwork now so that we can go directly up at 12pm. She said we can’t go in sooner than 12pm, please come back at 12pm. I then responded with I understand that, but shall we start the paperwork. She said no. That was the end of that, Not worth arguing with someone like this after 22hrs of travel. So, we went out front, enjoyed the view and was kinda just shocked at how we were greeted.

Mini Room: For 200-250 pounds a night, you’d expect something larger than 19sqm room, a small double bed with uncomfortable pillows. And not getting harassed for extra pillows or comforter by interrogating you as if you’re sneaking in an extra family. As if they will fit in these small rooms!

Breakfast: After breakfast, we had a partial eaten Muffin. The gentleman told us to put back the Muffin. My girlfriend explained that it had a bite. He proceeded to tell us the rules of not being allowed to take food out from the restaurant. We explained to him that it had a bite in the muffin and it will end up getting thrown away. So, we’ll take it with us and eat it later. He then started to scold us that we should no the rules and that this isn’t allowed. We were shocked that 1. He was this rude, 2. Talked to us like we were children 3. Would rather throw away a partially bitten muffin that have us save it for later and 4. Had no clue how clueless and rude he was. SHOCKING!!!

Front Reception: We're not from this area so we asked reception to order us a Taxi. The lady recommended to order it 30min early because it's busy, so she called the Taxi 30min early. The taxi arrived in 10min, we told her we're not ready and to just let them know we'll ride with friends. She responded with asking us to walk come down from the room go to the car park and tell the taxi driver ourselves, even though we told her we were still getting ready. LOL. The front reception is a joke.

Room Service: We ordered food for something easy while we were getting ready. The food came while I was in the shower and my girlfriend didn't know where the room service ticket was. The waiter wouldn't leave the food and wanted her to go down to front reception to verify if we're allowed to charge food. She said NO, you can call down, go down there and verify or or ask them to call us to verify us. He left the food and when I got out of the shower the restaurant called again asking us to go to the front desk to confirm with the front desk I can charge to my room. I call him and tell him I know I can, I have the ticket and to call himself and confirm as were are getting ready for our friends wedding.

The staff here seem to have ZERO customer service training. I don't know if it's because of covid and they lost all the good employees, but the staff here...

This was our third visit to this hotel, and it will sadly be the last.

I don’t think I have ever in my life not paid for dinner. It was 30 minutes before someone came and asked if “do you want some food” at which point we ordered our first set of drinks too. It was an hour and 10 minutes after we arrived before our food was with us, and to describe it as ordinary would be a compliment.

If you get an average meal in KFC then whatever, but to order a £90 steak and have it over cooked, with the wrong sauce and the wrong side is not good enough. The broccoli was awful, as was the sauce we didn’t order. You would expect for someone within a few minutes to ask “Is your food ok? Can I get you any more drinks?” Not at the Duck Bay hotel.

For 45 minutes after the food arrived we were trying to get someone’s attention. Eventually someone came over to take our food away and asked if we enjoyed it. There was a full plate of food for us both, as we hadn’t eaten it. We explained what was wrong and how disappointed we were. The waitress seemed quite shocked and said she would speak to the manager. No offer or trying to fix it, get other food. After 10 minutes or so she was back with a desert menu and we just asked for the bill. The bill came at full price for the food including the sides we never got, but they had taken the two small glasses of wine off. We explained we weren’t going to pay the bill and the manager was called over. He took another 10 minutes to arrive. He did at least come prepared with what he should have already done - a bill for the drinks but not the food which we were happy to pay.

The managers response to the broccoli being terrible was that he didn’t like broccoli anyway, which seemed an incredibly odd way of dealing with the complaint.

Other comments included “you were one of the last tickets of the night so it’s unfortunate”, “you never did get those chips did you?”, “it’s quite a young team on with not a lot of experience”, “we all agreed in the kitchen it wasn’t cooked right”.

The food at lunch was good, although with more terrible service.

Our last experience a year ago in the same restaurant we had asked six times for drinks without ever getting them.

Other bits and bobs:

There was no iron in the room so we had asked for one at reception. They had an iron, but don’t have ironing boards. They explained that we could iron our clothes on the floor. My other half who takes much better care of her clothes than I do, didn’t particularly want to iron her dress on the floor.

Check in was late because our room wasn’t ready, although they did take our bags when asked.

All in all for what we paid we expected good service in a good location. Our Loch view room which we paid extra for had a view of the hotel roof mostly so don’t make that mistake either.

Our last time here, and looking at the other reviews it seems the hotel is on a downward trend, mostly due to staff rather then the building or it’s setting. The staff aren’t rude, but they seem completely untrained in hospitality.

I would put an average Premier Inn well above in terms of a room...