The Kirkwall Hotel

Stopped here for 2 nights on a 13 day around Scotland with a private guide. Got a very nice room with a pull out bed for my daughter and queen for myself. The view was of the harbor and fantastic. Bathroom is updated and *huge*. Some minor nit Shower could fit 8 people with 2 full sets of plumbing, but they put the shampoo, etc on the floor..... A tiny shelf would be nice. In the room they provide a big bottle of water, how about a couple of glasses??? We stayed 2 nights so it wasn't just an oversight. No USB, but we had our own converters. Elevator is from the 40's with dual manual doors, but it does work, VERY CENTRAL Location with supermarkets open till 10pm on weekdays 5 minutes away.

I went to the bar/restaurant with my girlfriend on a Saturday night in June. The restaurant was fairly busy, but we were given a table quickly despite not having a reservation. The waiting staff were friendly and efficient, but we had quite a few different staff members serve us through the evening which may help explain why some things were missed. My main was roasted balsamic glazed cauliflower steak with roasted potatoes, tendersteam broccoli & chilli jam. The cauliflower was tough with a wee bit of balsamic vinegar poured on it, and the rest tasted like boiled vegetables on a plate. For £15.95, it felt like I'd been ripped off. I still felt hungry after my main, but decided not to have desert as they were all £10+ and I didn't want to feel disappointed again by the food. My girlfriend overheard the specials being mentioned at another table and went for the langoustines main. We had not had the specials board brought to us, so were not aware of the prices. On looking back, we should have asked for it. She thoroughly enjoyed her plate of langoustines. But we got quite a shock when the bill arrived and the langoustines were over £43! I would not be likely to go back because of the prices and the poor vegetarian main, but we did enjoy the wine and the bar/restaurant environment.

We only came in for dinner. It was very busy. Difficult to say how many were residents but if you are not staying here I suggest you would need to book ahead. Had a very nice dinner with a wine (good choice of wines). Restaurant prices. Couldn't eat here every night.

Lovely comfortable room, great food, friendly staff. Nice location overlooking the harbour and handy for the bus terminal. I would definitely stay here again.

The hotel is traditional and has a classic beauty but is tired and needs updating. It’s probably the best hotel around, and all the tour companies use it….it appeared very busy with tours. That’s good and glad they have the business. I booked 2 single rooms for 6 nights ( travelling with a friend), and when we arrived we were taken over the road next door to their ‘annex’ hotel. The Shore. It is foul, awful, terrible and smells of damp. I had no idea that this hotel even existed. No one had told me and it was so disappointing that I made up my mind we weren’t going to stay there. It want what I thought I had booked and I hadn’t been told. Lovely Fiona, on reception, totally understood and managed to get us into rooms in the main hotel for 5 out of our 6 nights. Our 1 night in the Shore was awful. However, the other 5 nights in the actual Kirkwall Hotel was lovely. The staff are amazing….and friendly….Fiona, Heidi, David, Cameron, Alan, Stuart, Silviu……all wonderful. They must dread guested having to stay in the Shore. Tour operators obviously know to routine. So…..if you book a room at the Kirkwall hotel, check, check and check again that you are not being put in the Shore. Breakfasts are good and dinners are nice. The bar was lovely. Would go back there…..but not to the Shore.

This is a hotel that has been updated with expensive throw pillows and nice tile in the bathrooms . The decorating is lovely but the attention to small details is missing for instance, the blind in our bedroom was lopsided. There was a coffee stain on the stool in the room and there were other areas of painting that were neglected. I’ve attached some photos to this review whilst the dinner was excellent, the breakfast was very poor. I would highly recommend skipping breakfast and getting it somewhere else. The yogurts provided were cheap supermarket variety with sweet fruit thickend yoghurt and watery zero fat plain in little tubs. The fruit salad was mostly chopped apple. They were also out of eggs even though we arrives at 8.45am. When I asked about eggs, the waiter said they take care of it, but nobody ever alerted me so I never had any eggs. The cereals are nothing special. I asked for hot milk to accompany my coffee and was brought a tiny weenie jug of warm semi fat milk. Personally, I prefer whole milk and there was none available, yet they make a big deal of having fresh milk from a special dairy. I don’t think I would stay here again. It seems overpriced quite frankly for what you get and there are lots of items that are worn.