Name: Brander Lodge Hotel
Address: Bridge Of Awe, Taynuilt, Taynuilt, Taynuilt, PA35 1HT, United Kingdom
Rating: 9

Smoke-free property

Garden

Television in lobby

Terrace

No elevators

Reception desk

General

Accessibility features

Wheelchair Accessible

Accessibility

Laundry

Services and amenities

Coffee/tea for guests

Breakfast

Restaurant

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Library

Barbecue grill(s)

Picnic area

Barbeque

Recreation

Free parking

Parking

Event facilities

Conference Hall

Business

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Personal protection equipment for staff

Extra decontamination measures

Personal protection equipment for guests

Contactless check-in and/or check-out

Additional measures against COVID-19

Health and Safety Measures

Location

At the hotel

Bonawe Iron Furnace

Brander Lodge Hotel

Taynuilt

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

12-beds

13-beds

14-beds

15-beds

16-beds

17-beds

18-beds

19-beds

2-beds

20-beds

21-beds

22-beds

23-beds

24-beds

25-beds

26-beds

27-beds

28-beds

29-beds

3-beds

30-beds

31-beds

32-beds

33-beds

34-beds

35-beds

36-beds

37-beds

38-beds

39-beds

4-beds

40-beds

5-beds

6-beds

7-beds

8-beds

9-beds

king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

I booked a 2 night stay for my sister and I months ago and we were looking forward to staying here. 

On arrival we went to the reception to check in. When the lady on reception asked me for my bank card I said I’d rather pay as we go. She then told me I she needed it to charge me for the stay. I let her know I had paid the stay when I booked. She told me I had not. I again said I definitely had paid when I booked and she said she had processed my booking my and knows I had not paid. I said I was sure I had paid, and she said that if we had booked via itison it would be paid, but because I booked directly with them, it was not paid. The receptionist again asked for my card to charge the room and I reluctantly handed it over. 

We were given room 6 and it was not at all welcoming. It was very run down. There was a patio area but it was also run down and the patio doors were tied together with cable ties (the manager later said this was because the last guests in this room had done something to the locking mechanism).  On arriving in the room, I accessed my confirmation email and noted the date, then looked up my banking app and found the payment was made to Brander Lodge at the time of booking, just as I had said. 

I took my phone to reception and showed the payment to the receptionist, who called the manager/owner. He also had a look and I offered to create a pdf of the payment and send it to them. They said this wasn’t necessary and without apology, let me know they’ve had a new computer system put in, excusing the error. I returned to my room at this point, baffled by how blasé they were about it and dismayed at their lack of apology for categorically telling me I hadn’t paid. 

Now, if you are a hotelier or receptionist and a customer let’s you know they have paid, you would surely check your systems and not simply tell them they are wrong multiple times and demand their payment card. Surely? And if you’ve recently updated your system, surely you would definitely check to make sure you’re not wrongly demanding payment and telling a customer they haven’t paid over and over again…while asking for their payment card. But no, none of this happened. I had to find proof and evidence my payment to them. This is extremely poor customer service. It is even worse that when this error of theirs was discovered they did not apologise. Instead, they let me know it was an error due to changing systems. 

Having evidenced my payment to them and listened to them excuse their earlier behaviour by blaming it on computers, I returned to the room. I expressed to my sister that I did not feel comfortable staying here. If it had been a busier place and I was unlikely to bump into these people throughout my stay I might have felt differently, but the hotel was empty and these appeared to be the only two members of staff on duty, so the remainder of our stay would have been terribly uncomfortable for me. My sister agreed and we decided to leave. 

While I was in discussion with the owner and receptionist about feeling uncomfortable about how I had been treated, the receptionist was rolling her eyes and pulling faces instead of taking ownership of what she had done and apologising. There was no apology at any point from either staff member. Instead, there was a ‘now listen to me’ attitude from the owner, and a lot of nonsense, so in the end we asked for an refund and left. 

I would not advise anyone to stay here. I can see from other reviewers that there are mixed customer experiences, but it really isn’t worth taking the chance. I had been so looking forward to our trip away, but it was soured by the behaviour of the receptionist and the lack of accountability by both members of staff we encountered.

Not the place to stay…

The grounds around Brander Lodge are absolutely stunning, unfortunately though the hotel itself is rather sad. The choice of decor in the rooms is bland and in the restaurant is rather sterile, eating dinner in there was a bit of a miserable experience because there was no ambience at all, although the food was fairly good. The hotel needs some urgent investment, it's not a "destination" hotel nor is it a place to visit just for a meal. The staff we met, David and a waiter, were pleasant and helpful. If you're looking for a proper Scottish experience in this very beautiful part of the world, I'm afraid you won't find it at this hotel.

A bit sad really

Absolutely shocked from the moment we arrived. Supposed to be having a 2 night stay here... didn't last 30 minutes!
My sister & I had booked a wee relaxing 2 night break.
From the moment wee arrived the staff, which consisted of the Owner/Manager/Chef and his Receptionist, were rude, obnoxious and arrogant. 
Basically calling my sister a liar, saying that the stay had Not been paid for before arrival and therefore needed her card to take payment. When my sister explained that it had been paid at the point of booking she was Told it definitely had not been as she herself (the Receptionist) had taken the booking and did Not take payment. 
When my sister then replied that it was a male who had taken the booking & payment the Receptionist continued to disagree and demand my sister gave her bank card over... which she did... confused & doubting herself. 
When we went to our room (room 6, which was the worst room I have seen in a long time at any given establishment), she had to scroll through emails and banking app to find the evidence that YES it had been paid at the time of booking. 
Going through to show this evidence the Receptionist and the Owner (and all his other titles) were completely rude, spoke over us, demanded that we let him speak, which became a 'talking down' to us and a 'bumming' up his Receptionist,  who was still taking no acknowledgement of her abrupt & unwelcoming manner.
Anyway, end result, we left & found a delightful Hotel with stunning views & rooms and extremely friendly and welcoming staff.
We will never set foot in the premises of Brander Lodge again and would recommend people to Stay Away.


Never have we been treated so appallingly!

Had a major refurb, good choice of food and great garden.

We throughly enjoyed our stay here and honestly couldn't fault a thing. On arriving, we were given room 9, fantastic room with outside table and chairs and a short walk to the beautiful river. Our room had the biggest bed, so fresh and clean and very comfortable. The room had everything you wanted and needed. Very clean and fresh too. We had dinner included in our room rate and an excellent choice too. We both had smoked salmon starter and scampi and chips, both delicious and fresh.  We had the cranachan too, very creamy and the perfect end to our dinner. Drinks were excellent; my husband said the ale on tap was very good and a very professionally stored ale. Our breakfast was a full cooked scottish breakfast but again excellent choices; the haggis cup was very intriguing sounding. There was toast, coffee, tea, juices, cereal, fruit, yogart and pastries, oh and cheese and ham too. Spoilt for choice. We will most definitely be returning to this very reasonably priced (actually an amazing price for dbb) hotel and is a hidden gem. Staff were all very efficient and extremely polite. We had travelled up with our boat which we took out on loch Awe so this was extremely handy and clear by too. What a fantastic stay, couldn't recommend this hotel more honestly the best.

Wonderful hidden gem of a hotel

Very helpful and friendly,  scenery was lovely

From the website extract below, as there is no menu published, but there is a high expectation of good local produce.  

........
Our menu
Fresh local produce is what we aim for, and our menu reflects the wonderful options of the region, with meat from Grants of Taynuilt, fresh smoked delights from Inverawe smokehouse, fresh fish & seafood from the Atlantic in the West and North Sea in the East coast of Scotland and local fresh water and sea water Lochs........

Unfortunately, all this seafood amounts to a fish cake on the menu. Hopefully, the Grants are supplying the beer burger; I'm not sure what else they were supplying.

Inverawe Smokehouse, I think their produce has fallen off completely.

Further variations include: menu says "salad" = plate has only green leaves,  I don't think that is a salad.

The staff were polite and friendly.  Bar area up to date and clean.

Please be honest on your website. You can just publish your menu and there won't be any accusations of the advertisement falling well short of the product.

Maybe the chef was off ill, I do not know, and I did of course, have the option to leave once I had seen the menu and realised it was not as I expected. or hoped  Choosing to stay was on me, but this is between towns, so with a minimum of a 20 minute drive to somewhere else, what would you do.

Disappointed website food pitch does not match reality

The staff were nice enough but there were only 4 main meal options. The food that we had was terrible the smoked salmon starter had two tiny pieces of salmon barely enough for one of the three oatcakes that came with it ! The main meal I had was Steak pie it had greasy watery gravy and tasteless meat covered in gristleMy colleague had mince and mash which was also tasteless and when he asked for a sachet of brown sauce to try to put a bit of taste into it was told there was none I would not recommend anyone eat there until the food improves drastically

Terrible food

I wasn’t really expecting much for £50 but the building itself needs some modernisation. The room looked like it needs a refresh and the view was just of the roof, you couldn’t see anything outside. The shower was not the best. It squirted out bits of water and screamed when it was turned on. Told on Expedia that check in is at 2, I know I got there slightly early but my room wasn’t ready until 3. Dining room wasn’t the best, there was no atmosphere and not a lot of choice on the menu, breakfast was more or less the same, not a lot of choice and some of the things on the menu they didn’t have. Bed was really comfy which is good

overnight stay on my way to the Outer Hebrides. On checking in a was surprised to hear I had been upgraded to a bigger room. The bed was big and comfy and the shower was powerful and hot.I had dinner and breakfast at the bistro which was limited for veggies but no more so than any other restaurant and the staff were helpful and polite.

Brander Lodge Hotel

Main amenities of the hotel

Location

Available rooms

Location

Description of the hotel

What other amenities are there?

Policies

Check-in terms and conditions

Paid on the spot

Payment