The Stirling Highland Hotel

This hotel has so much potential but is let down by small things. For a start it only has one bedroom with a walk in shower. All the rest are over the bath showers. This is an immediate concern for anyone who has mobility issues... I was part of a coach party and we arrived to be given envelopes with out name and room number on them. Getting to the room we then found the name of the envelope didn't match the name inside with the key card.... Room 129 had the key for room 127, which had the key card for room 126.... We were playing pass the key card along the corridor as we tried to discover our room.It was a scene worthy of Fawlty Towers.... I never did find out who had my key card, so ended up at reception to one told I couldn't have the room on on my envelope as it was already allocated to another guest. I was given another room. (I wasn't the only one as there were several others also waiting for their key and rooms to be sorted.) No apology or explanation was given for such a basic error. You don't expect such a fiasco at a hotel of this standard. Reception was busy with only one receptionist and a long queue of increasing fed up guests. Their customer care left a lot to be desired and I wasn't the only one to feel annoyed at their rather gunging ho attitude! However it was a very nice room (even if it didn't have the walk in shower that I'd requested when booking.) My only complaint was the pillows were firm and unforgiving. Dinner was a rather uninspiring set menu and although we had ordered in advance they ran out of deserts and three of us had a long wait while the chef had to rapidly prepare some more. Service wasn't exactly speedy either. Breakfast was self service and although I was down 15 minutes after it opened, the buffet was luke warm rather than hot. The hotel has great character and is an excellent position just a few minutes walk from the Church of the Holy Rude and the castle. I had been looking forward to my stay and this hotel should have been the highlight of the holiday. It is a pity it was let down by the receptionist and the way they dealt with increasingly frustrated guests and the fact that in a hotel of that size there is only one room with a walk in shower...

Very nice though a bit tired.

The hotel is in a great location and there is paid parking available on site. Set in an old school building it has lots of character but the rooms are very dated but adequate for a short stay. Staff are friendly and breakfast was very good.

This is an old school turned into a hotel. Felt like we could see Harry Potter at any time.

The hotel was nice. Lovely historic building. In need of an interior update. Old carpets. Tile in bathroom required upgrade. Grout was missing and tiles were loose. An interior upgrade would do wonders and get the hotel a 5 star rating.

My room smelled musty and there was mold in the bathroom and on the rubber bath mat. There was a large stain on the ceiling, likely from a water leak, which would explain the musty smell. Room was dusty, too. Bits of food near the bed. Pretty gross.

Very good location nice staff but hotel is badly in need of refurbishment

I am leaving this review here regarding our experience, which was not good, as I have emailed the hotel twice now on the email contact that they replied to prior to our booking regarding upgrading our stay. Now the booking has passed, I have been completely ignored and no response or even acknowledgement of my email has been received. We booked to stay at the hotel for my wife's birthday. We came in later in the afternoon due to having done the Rob Roy Mighty Hike in Callander and we were looking forward to using the leisure facilities but we knew that we would have a limited time using it due to the 7pm closure time of it. When checking in, the staff were nice and friendly and advised us that due to booking direct we would have a complimentary bottle of wine waiting for us in our room, which was a nice welcome. We went to our room quickly in order to quickly drop our luggage and head to the spa. When getting in the room, we realised that we had a room with 2 single beds even though I had booked a room with double bed. I attempted to call the help number provided on the welcome notes with no success; I therefore had to go back to the reception (losing some of the limited time we had to use the SPA) where I had to queue to notify reception of the issue with our beds which was not what I had booked. They advised that they would get someone to put the beds together and that we could head to the SPA. Back to the room and away to the SPA, where no robes or slippers were provided (in a spa hotel??) and after completing a half marathon, all muddy and we had to pass through a wedding to get there - not very comfortable for either party. Back to the room after that where we thought we could relax, wash and enjoy our complementary wine...well not exactly, no wine or glass was there even though we were told when we checked in, there would be some. Number not answering still, back to the reception where again I had to queue (which is fine, just not ideal and I shouldn't have to go to reception in the first place). Issue was eventually sorted, but by this point our welcome and first-impressions had been diminished. Time to use the bathroom, I was surprised to find a bathroom with a ceiling stained (also mould!) and cracked, collapsing (please see attached pictures) with part above the shower was dirty and slightly bent like it was close from falling down and not feeling very safe. The bedroom had stains on the ceiling as well. There was also a loud buzzing noise (industrial, like pipes?) coming from downstairs which would come and go, not very relaxing. Breakfast was ok and that's about it, not enough to make us stay again.

Second floor is only accessible via stairs. No explanation or offer to help with luggage. Bathroom ceiling was moldy. Breakfast and dinner were mediocre. Staff at checkout was indifferent to our concerns. Location was very good, down the street from Stirling Castle.

Had a lovely 3 night break staying at this hotel with friendly and helpful staff. Great to have on site parking. Hotel is located close to the castle and in the old part of Stirling but still an easy walk to town. We had a standard room which was spacious and clean and we also had a lovely view from our room. Breakfast was delicious with everything you could possibly want to eat. Will definitely stay again.