Sandyford Lodge

My room was comfortable and warm. The room was clean and tidy, and the shower was lovely and hot with a huge shower head. I felt really refreshed and clean.

I never ended up staying here, but I had an extremely poor experience with this hotel regardless. My aunt sadly passed away unexpectedly, with her funeral being held the night I was meant to be staying at this hotel - I emailed asking if I could be refunded in this instance, despite booking a non-refundable room. They emailed back to say no - this would have been completely fine and understandable, however unfortunately the following poor experience happened. I then called the hotel to see if I could upgrade my booking (originally a single room) to a double room (again, I was more than happy to pay), so that some friends could attend instead. The gentleman that answered my call first of all told me that my room would be refunded, which I was extremely grateful for. It then turned out that he was looking at the wrong booking - he then found another booking and told me I was booked to stay on the 11th of July. Once again this was the wrong booking. When he finally found my booking for July 4th, he asked what I was looking to do - I had already said this at the beginning of the phone call. When repeating that I wanted to upgrade my room, I was told that he would be unable to do this over the phone and I would need to email to process this. Okay, fine. I emailed. 3 days went by and I received no reply. I called the same number back to check the progress of this email and was then told that I could in fact upgrade over the phone - however in the time that had passed, there were now no double rooms left to upgrade to. At this point I was slightly fed up, but was still not going to post a review. I said I would call back if I could find someone who wanted to take the single room. The cherry on top was then being called by the staff at 5:30 pm (note - check in does not close until 11pm) whilst I was at the funeral wake to be asked if I was still coming. When I said that I was, as I had consistently said, at a literal funeral and I could not find anyone else who wanted to stay in a single room, they replied 'yes but are you coming'. I genuinely hope I caught the staff on a bad day and I really want to believe that they are normally better than this, and I'm sure they are based on the other reviews here, but my personal experience was definitely negative. I would have put this in an email first, but them failing to reply to one where I would have spent more money on the hotel makes me very doubtful that they would have replied to this.

Helpful & interested staff. Our large room was on the ground floor (although the bed was just a double) and had a new bathroom. Parking was nearby in a covered car park but was cash only (there was an ATM nearby). Buses into town (as well as the hop-on-hop-off-bus) were so easy to access (just be aware you can't tap to pay for 2 people on the one card). Breakfast was across the road at the hotel and it included a good selection. We loved having dinner one block up at the Ox & Finch but booking was essential as it is busy - they are mostly shared plates)