The Royal Hotel

I loved Stromness and the hotel location was perfect for accessing both ends of the high street and harbour. The hotel itself was clean and the staff friendly with a very good breakfast in the morning, including fresh kippers - cooked to perfection. I give this 4* out of 5* because of the value for money at this busy time of year.

I think the hotel was great but some of the decor was looking a little tired, and our room was extremely hot (opened the window to sort that out). Appreciated everything else though.

Location was awesome. Great historic hotel. The lady running the breakfast was a character and was hilarious. She really made it a lovely experience.

Didn't enjoy hiking our luggage up to the third floor but not much we can do about that. Parking was challenging too.

Ontbijt was goed - en personeel bij het ontbijt heel vriendelijk

Het hotel is vrijwel onbemand - we moesten bellen om contact op te nemen met het hotelmanagement. Onze slaapkamer lag direct boven de bar, dus slapen was niet mogelijk tot sluitingstijd. We werden voor onze tweede nacht naar een kleinere kamer verplaatst. De tweede kamer had geen warm water. Het duurste hotel waar we verbleven tijdens onze twee weken durende rondreis door Orkney en Shetland, en verreweg het slechtste.

Great location, from the room I had I could see the water, fabulous breakfast! The staff could not have been nicer, genuinely friendly.

Slightly noisy above the pub, and because it's quite warm I had my window open, so there was that.. Hardly anything really.

Simple and unpretentious. Travelled as a group of 8 ages 15 thru 51. Rooms were clean and comfortable without any fuss, and the bar downstairs had a great atmosphere with friendly locals and good overall vibe. 2 min walk from bus station and ferry over to Hoy. Staff were welcoming throughout. Breakfast was proper full Scottish (or kippers/porridge options) plus cereals/pastries/fruit etc. Solid choice if you want honest, no-nonsense hospitality.

We were staying at the sister hotel (Ferry Inn) following day after visiting Hoy and were able to leave bags in a room, but would have been good if they'd offered to transport them for us. (Ultimately that DID happen, but through the mgmt team at the Ferry).

Room was a good size and comfortable enough, and the breakfast was good.

For what it is the room rate was excessive, but there are few alternatives in Stromness. There was no such thing as “reception”, even though emails from the hotel suggested the contrary. The hotel did not open the doors until check-in time, and the owner was not service minded enough to allow access to leave our bags until then. Once checked in you didn’t see anyone from the hotel, only the bar staff who seemed to have no idea about the rooms and accomodation.