As doonhamers who no longer live in Dumfries, I can't believe how much this hotel has declined in recent years. For a long time I'd recommended it as somewhere to stay for people arriving from out of town. In future I will think twice.

My husband booked an Executive double room for us to stay in after our wedding at Easterbrook Hall in August. He checked in during the day so that when we arrived at 1.30am the night porter would only have to give us our key. This he did - but to the wrong room. The poor person, who we woke that night, must have received a considerable shock to find a stranger opening his door at that time. Indeed, the occupant did let out a scream and no doubt complained to management the following day. Fortunately, my new husband hadn't decided to lift me over the threshold and throw me on the bed....

When we eventually got the key to the correct room, we found it rather dark and dingy and had clearly not been refurbished for quite some time. The bathroom, while clean and tidy, looked as if it had had some repair work done on the wall above the toilet but it appeared as if this hadn't been finished properly.

This could have been overlooked if it had not been for the fact that when we switched the light off, it started to flash like a strobe - resulting in my husband risking burning his hand by removing the bulb.

Overall, not what we expected given my husband had paid £115 for a room which he presumed, given the rating of the hotel, would be of reasonable quality. We would have complained in the morning but we were glad to leave and get off on our honeymoon.

I stayed with my wife and in-laws on the night of the 21st August. We had booked 2 double or twin rooms on the Visit Scotland website.

The check-in was quick and efficient, and we were sent up to our rooms - which turned out to be 2 single bedded rooms! When we went back down to point out the mistake to the receptionist, she turned to the Executive Housekeeper and said “Is room 86 not a double?”. We were then asked to take a seat while they fixed the problem. After about 5 minutes of discussion with her manager in the back office (the door was open), she came back out with 2 double rooms and said “I’m sorry, the booking only came down to us as 2 single rooms”. This a poor attempt at covering up the fact there was a large tour group checking in after us, and we had intentionally been bumped so as to accommodate this group’s requirements.

The bedrooms themselves were pleasantly and tastefully furnished (we had two of the newly refurbished rooms), and the shower pressure was more than fine. The bed although small (no way that a queen or king would ever fit) was perfectly comfortable.

We used the pool/spa facilities, and they were good, clean and well maintained.

We stopped by the lobby bar for a drink, and it appears ‘Francis’ was having a bad night. Service was given with nothing close to a smile. When he was refilling some of his glassware, he was having a tantrum and thumping them onto the shelf. When he actually broke one, he threw it into the bin on the other side of the bar where it smashed. This is UNACCEPTABLE behaviour which should never be displayed by staff in any establishment.

Dinner in Rievers was perfectly acceptable - the food was better than the service, though the staff did try hard! The service is just not quite at the level where it matches the food.

Overall, our stay was ok. I believe that it is the staff that make all the difference to a hotel - they have some way to go yet, however, the product itself is good, worthy of it’s 3 star status.

Stayed for two nights on B+B basis 2nd and 3rd August 2007. After reading reviews on trip adviser we were apprehensive about small rooms; poor showers and noise from functions but was booked into a spacious well equipped room and no problems with noise from functions - just noisy guests coming to bed after 11pm!! The shower was poor but it could be improved with a replacement shower head. Bathroom a little dated but adequate. Used gym, pool, wet room, sauna and jacuzzi which were excellent facilities. Breakfast was help yourself buffet and had a good choice. Service from hotel staff was good. Would certainly recommend Room 15 !!

Just returned from a 3 night golf break, and would have no hesitation to return. The golf co-ordinator at the hotel (Michael Dickie) could not have been more helpful,as we unfortunately had to make a number of alterations to our original booking, but all changes were made without fuss, and he even ordered buggies, and entered us into an "open " competition to reduce costs,etc.

I read the largely mixed comments after I had booked, so was unsure as to how pleasant the stay would be. Our room was clean, modern and comfortable, albeit the only view was a roof. We stayed on a DBB basis. As there was not much difference in the price for B&B we were not too concerned if the food was not up to much as we would have walked the 2 or 3 minutes into town and paid for dinner. I have got to say the dinner on all three nights was excellent (4 courses) and we had no need to eat outside the hotel. Leisure complex was good and clean.

Our only downside was that our room appeared to be on top of a function room where a wedding took place on the Sat evening and you could hear every word of the live entertainment until 1am, perhaps wedding guests who were staying at the hotel would have been better placed in these rooms.