Stayed one night, as part of a business trip to the area. The hotel is tidy enough, but I am not sure about STB 4 and AA 3 * ratings. Although I had booked a single room, I was given a beautifully clean small double, which was most acceptable. However, I think a couple would have found the accommodation and the bed very cramped. On the other hand, the bathroom was nearly as big as the bedroom and, again, spotless. Perhaps a weakness of older, less well insulated buildings, but TV noise was noticeable from a number of adjacent suites.
Free secure Wi-fi throughout the hotel and decent cable TV were amongst what attracted me to the Parklands in the first place and both worked well. I was also anticipating good eating, as much is made of the two restaurants and cuisine.
However, I was late arriving and, as expected, the restaurants were closed for the night. Nevertheless, given the perceived standard of this hotel, I was looking forward to a decent sandwich from Room Service. The night manager was pleasant enough and offered a range of fillings for my "sarnie". I was bitterly disappointed to receive two rounds of thin-sliced white bread, sparsely filled with watery, wafer-thin ham.....not exactly the hand carved gammon on crusty wholemeal I had expected. Furthermore, so far as I could see, there were no tea or coffee making facilities in my room.
Breakfast was a major disappointment, there was little left in the way of fresh fruit midway through the sitting and the full Scottish was tragically overcooked.
My colleagues and I stayed on for lunch, but again the fare was very average. Nice tasty local steak, but the roast (I think) potatoes again suffered from overcooking.
The staff were pretty good, although I had to smile when presented with the credit card reader together with an invitation to add a gratuity to what was a bill comprising grossly over-inflated prices for just about everything.
I have no problems with paying well for value for money. I believe this hotel has the same ratings as the Royal Marine at Brora, which is more expensive, but in a different league altogether.
I read somewhere that the Parklands is a B&B pretending to be a hotel. To my way of thinking, it does appear to fall between two stools. On the one hand very tidy and homely, but on the other not really delivering on that all important factor….quality!!







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Location (e.g., convenience, views)
Business service (e.g., internet access)





