CLC Duchally Country Estate Timeshare

Beware of making the error of taking a dog to this hotel as we did, not being aware of the no dogs on the estate policy. We were turned away AND charged for the so called cancelled booking. The receptionist in charge was ungracious bordering on downright rude. Our pet has always travelled with us and sleeps in the car in a cage, warm and safe. Reception said this was unacceptable as they could not allow the dog to sleep in the car as it was cruel. Big brother is definitely watching over you at Duchally.

I have been to the Duchally lodges for the past 5 years with 8 friends, always staying for 3 nights in 3 lodges and always had a great experience, the lodges are cosy and the food in the hotel is OK.

I very rarely give poor reviews but feel the need to have a moan about the very unhelpful night porter. We came back to the hotel bar at 22:55 hoping for a drink, the bar was closed, however, Danny the barman who is a delightful chap opened the bar so we could get a drink before going to bed.

He served us and commented he had finished his shift and we wouldn’t be able to get a drink thereafter, we were OK with this and bid him goodnight. We were then continually requested to drink up and leave by the night porter, we left for 23:20 not late in my book. I asked the night porter if I could get a bottle of water to take to my lodge, to be told NO and that I would have to drink water from the tap in my room.

To say I was vexed at this would be an understatement. I didn’t say anything to the man at the time which is surprising given the situation.

I did complain to the lady at reception the following morning who seemed uninterested with my comments although did say she would pass on my complaint to management. I feel the estate has been let down by an arrogant porter, I would have given this a good review bar the fact I was spoken to by a person with no customer service skills whatsoever and that no one seemed to take my complaint seriously and no one apologised.

On a positive, I would like to thank our waitress Jen (I think) who really worked hard and looked after our group throughout dinner on the last night. Enough said.

We have just returned from a 2 night stay at the Duchally Country House Hotel and unfortunately will not be returning. On arrival, we were greeted by a very pleasant and helpful member of Reception who showed us upstairs to our room. The room was on the small side with an antiquated T.V. Furnishings were dark and well worn. No plug near the dressing table for the hairdryer. Cheap covers on the bed but nice fluffy, good quality towels in the bathroom. The shower is difficult to control and I was almost scalded on the second morning as there is no temp control.

It goes from hot to cold and back again. Housekeeping is not up to scratch for this standard of Hotel.

Empty containers left on the bath with no top ups. Empty tissue box not replaced and used towels put back for reuse. The first night we arrived we went into the only bar for a pre-dinner drink and were faced with a widescreen T.V. showing boxing with sound. This is not acceptable and we decided, after seeing the limited menu to eat elsewhere.

The next morning we came down to breakfast to be seated beside a family who were quite obviously being given a high-pressure sales talk by a member of the timeshare team. She was relentless and we had to endure the same jargon as that poor family throughout our entire breakfast.

At the end, the chap stood up and apologised to us saying we could now be left in peace! This is not acceptable. We ate out on our second night because quite frankly, the dining room has as much atmosphere as Colditz!!

When we came back after a beautiful meal at the Cairn there was a very good Scottish singer in the bar but apart from ourselves, there were only another four people. I think that says it all but on a plus note. at least they had turned off the telly!! Our morning of departure and we were down for breakfast at 9a.m. No bacon, no sausages and no eggs!! Had to wait a good 12 to 15 minutes for the waitress to replenish the empty dishes and to top it all, another timeshare woman, American, giving off another speel to a couple trying to finish their breakfast. Are they desperate for custom for the lodges when they have to encroach upon people trying to eat breakfast?

It’s disgraceful when their sales patter encroaches on paying guests trying to have a peaceful weekend break. We shouldn’t have to listen to this, not one but both mornings of our stay. Not acceptable. In conclusion, Duchally is giving priority to its guests in the lodges (which I’m sure are very nice) but for those who want a quiet Hotel break I’m afraid it’s not happening. A great pity because as previous reviewers have said it’s in a lovely setting.

Very peaceful with wonderful views and countryside. Sorry, we would never return to this Hotel. Just look down the road to the Cairn, Beautiful food and wonderful service. A lesson to be learned I think!

We were staying here for a last minute retreat as a change in our rotas had given us a free weekend off. We booked to stay at 11am and arrived at 5pm. The place was easy enough to find using the sat-nav.

When were arrived the girl at check in took at least 5 attempts to get everything correct. I overheard another couple asking to book for dinner and being told there were no tables available. We were also hoping to have dinner in the hotel (it is not exactly situated in a city centre!!!) but were told the only option would be to have a take-away option in our room.

They do have a bar, but we were not allowed to have any of the main restaurant options brought through to there. There was no mention made at the time of booking that there were no tables for dinner or to be honest we would never have stayed here (and we will not be back).

Of note the facilities are great – they have lovely pool (but it is outside in another building and as it was raining we got soaked getting there and back) and the sauna and steam room were also very good.

Breakfast was a buffet (which was nice but a bit cold) and the staff were fairly unimpressive at breakfast. We went back up to our room to finish tidying up and they phoned up at 1103 (three minutes after check out) to ask us very rudely to leave. A bit poor really considering they’d seen us come down with the suitcase about a minute before!

I would not stay here again – if you do I would highly advise the All-Seasons Restaurant in Auchterarder. The staff there were fantastic, food was brilliant and very well presented and the wine list was excellent (mains £10-13 – wine £3.50 per glass) and they were able to seat us without issue! There are frankly better hotels in the area – the Stirling Management Centre at Stirling University being one, and I would advise people to think twice before paying 50% more than those rates for somewhere with a bit too much emphasis on its timeshares and not enough on its hotel customers.

We stayed at Duchally for a long weekend. The snow made it soo lovely. Our lodge was very spacious and everything we needed was catered for. All but the wood flooring was spotlessly clean. The breakfast was not that good so we found a co-op and had our own breakfast in our lodge on the second morning of our stay.

Overall we enjoyed our stay, there was 1 huge letdown- TIMESHARE, we were FORCED to attend a 90 minute timeshare meeting on our second (last) day, we travelled 7 hours expecting to sightsee but unfortunately we just couldn’t get out of this, 3 hours later we were free to go although we were very adamant that we weren’t interested it went on and on and on, ! we missed out on all the things we wanted to do.