We were really excited to stay at this beautiful, historic property on the edge of Kingussie. The town is so charming and the views of the Cairngorms from the property are stunning - which was why we booked 3 nights here. However, as we unfortunately discovered upon arrival, the description of this property is incredibly misleading and much of the information on its booking page is inaccurate, including that the property is dog-friendly.
The most serious issue happened immediately upon arrival. At 7:00 p.m., we could not check into our room because it had not been cleaned after the previous guest. There was trash and used linens throughout the room, the bed was unmade, and there was poop left unflushed in the toilet. When I contacted the off-site staff, they initially did not believe me and demanded photos, which I sent via WhatsApp while on the phone with them.
We were moved for the night into a significantly lower-quality room on the ground floor that was not remotely comparable to the room we had paid for, and overlooked the gravel parking lot instead of the surrounding countryside. We were told we would be notified the next day when our original room was ready.
Instead of a simple resolution, the situation became increasingly unprofessional. We did not receive a message from the property that our room was ready but instead we were instructed to pack up and vacate the temporary room so it could be cleaned - before our original room was even ready. Nevertheless, after complying and waiting even longer, we were finally able to move into our original room at around 12:30 p.m. on the second day of our stay. Notably, we never saw another guest use that temporary room.
To make matters worse, we were later handed the key to the temporary room again and told to return it to the Keycafe, as if we were responsible for the property's operations. The lack of on-site management and basic professionalism was clear.
After moving into our room, communication from management became uncomfortable and felt more intrusive. Based on the messages we received, it appeared that off-site staff were monitoring guests via Ring cameras installed throughout the common areas. Despite notifying the property two days in advance that we would be bringing our dog to this advertised "dog-friendly" property, management suddenly introduced arbitrary rules about which rooms could have dogs and demanded both a pet fee as well as an additional cleaning fee to the tune of £60. These restrictions aren't disclosed anywhere in the listing, and no rooms are labeled on the booking sites as prohibiting dogs. Had this been disclosed by the property, we would not have booked here at all. Dog owners should also be aware that the only bin for pet waste is in the guest rooms.
Between the room condition at check-in, misleading listings, poor communication, intrusive monitoring, and unprofessional off-site management, this property is not worth the risk or the price. We ended up leaving the property a day early and turning over the situation to our travel insurance & booking site. I strongly recommend that prospective guests stay elsewhere. read more