Reviewer: Trip advisor member from Brechin, Scotland.
We have just returned from a two night stay at the Hilton House Hotel in Dunkeld.
The mile long drive down to the hotel gives some indication of the stunning location of this hotel and the fantastic selection of local walks to be enjoyed.
The building itself is typical of Scottish landed gentry from a bygone era but gives the impression of faded grandeur and a property that is in need of a bit of TLC.
Our room was on the first floor, directly above the main entrance, overlooking the gardens and car park. Whilst the room itself was of adequate dimensions, it was a bit dated. It was, however, clean and the bed was extremely comfortable. The ensuite bathroom was not only in need of decoration but was very disappointing insofar as the heated towel rail did not work which meant that the bathroom was terribly cold and the shower only worked if one wanted cold water. Both of these faults were reported but were not rectified.
The food in the dining room was good but the overall experience was a bit disappointing because of a lack of attention to details e.g. we had to seek out a waitress to ask for morning coffee; butter; sugar and they forgot to mention that if one wants vegetables with dinner they have to be ordered as an "extra". Generally, prices and quality were comparable to those available at local eateries.
We took advantage of a special offer advertised by the Hilton group - 2 nights + dinner on the first night for the price of 1 night's B&B. This was excellent value for money. Taking cognisance of the service & facilities, I would be reluctant to pay the full advertised rates.
Overall, although we had a lovely time it was the location as opposed to the service/ facilities that primarily contributed to our sense of relaxation.

The Hilton chain normally offers a reasonable compromise between luxury and value, and the Dunkeld House Hilton is, generally speaking, no exception.

Set by the side of the River Tay in a country estate just outside the cathedral town of Dunkeld, it very much has the appearance of a Victorian fishing lodge. At the slightly poky reception area, a dram or sherry awaits you as you check in, a quick and easy procedure carried out by the east European staff. Our room, in an eighties extension was clean and satisfactory, but a little poky and old fashioned. Its wardrobe was open and a little awkward to use, and its double glazing was rather cheap looking uPVC with metal parts which led to condensation. Heating, disappointingly, was by electric wall heater, which made clicky noises as it switched on and off, and also led to stuffy nights. Otherwise the room was fine and the bed, though perhaps on the hard side, was certainly large.

The restaurant was well run and despite the hotel being completey full on Valentine's day, dinner was served promptly and without fuss. Staff were polite and helpful and appeared to have been well trained. The food was served attractively and hot. However, the menu appeared to be the same each day, which is perhaps one way in which prices are kept down. One could not say in all honesty that the menu was inspiring, and many of the more interesting items attracted a hefty supplement. Nevertheless, dinner was a pleasant experience. There is an extensive and reasonable quality wine list, though it was far from cheap. Breakfast was a buffet, again good quality and well organised.

Overall you would have to say that although the standard was good, it is probably a bit lower than many other Hiltons in cities. It could certainly do with some investment to bring it up to the most modern standards, although it is by no means unacceptable, and the wonderful location might make up for some of the shortcomings of some of the rooms.

I've stayed at Hilton hotels before and vowed, "never again", but my wife orgainised our long weekend at Dunkeld. Like me previously, she had problems with their centralised reservations, who didn't know there whether there were non-smoking rooms (they all are) or whether a bath could be included in the en-suite (again they all have apparently). She ended up making a reservation directly with the hotel, which isn't suppposed to happen, but the lady concerned wasn't busy so she didn't forward the call to central reservations, thank you.

The Hilton website isn't all that accurate with their Dunkeld hotel facilities either. It says there are satellite channels (in fact there was only one in our room, SKY news), it also says there are video games and a Playstation, but not in our room. There are plenty of positives about this hotel, it's certainly in a scenic setting, clean, decent size (length) beds, loads of hot water and the herd of deer feeding on the lawn at dinner time was a nice touch. There were also a lot of negatives too and many to do with lack of attention to details, for example, table settings not complete, inconsistant dining service, no wine waiter in attendance in our area on one day, bedroom not cleaned by 3:30pm when we returned from a trip (we told them not to bother after that). The wine, when you get the opportunity to order some, is good, but very expensive (x3 on shop prices at least and the bar prices are hefty too). One bottle wasn't put on our bill, which I pointed out at check out time. The front desk staff gratiously added only half the price to our bill. The food in the restaurant was always very good.

The unscheduled fire alarm at 9am one morning was not particularly welcome, since there didn't seem to be any organisation amongst the hotel staff to say whether it was a false alarm or not, rather disconcerting and a H&S issue too. This and many of the other problems were probably due to the fact that it's early in the season and the many of the staff have yet to grasp much English and so don't understand what they're supposed to do. They were all however very pleasant. Some other good things they could do to help the guests would be to supply a folder in the room giving even basic details such as dining times, in-house phone numbers, facilities available etc. I've never been in a hotel before that didn't have this information, let alone another with touristy places to go to in the local area.

Going to breakfast or evening meals is also a bit of a lottery because you have to guess their system of working, which works OK, but is not all that intuitive. A word of warning, don't (like us) forget to book your evening meal time in the morning because you'll only get 6:30 or 9pm otherwise. Rationing out the times is, I think, a good idea because it gives the kitchen staff time to do their job properly.

My partner booked a dinner, bed and breakfast package online on the Hilton website. Upon arrival at around 13.00 were were told our room was not yet ready, but they were unable to give us an approximate time as to when we could check in either.

We returned at 16.00 and were given our key, only to discover that our room was not in the main building with a balcony view of the River Tay as advertised , but a small house next to the main building, named Rose Cottage (414) with a view of the car park.

The cottage was divided in two by a very thin door, so we could quite clearly hear the conversations between our neighbours and their children. The room had a bedroom, bathroom and sitting area given that we had booked a suite, but the decor was slightly outdated.

The bed was a normal double size (when king size was advertised), the bathroom had cracked floor tiles, grime around the bath seal and no hand soap. The entire place was also extremely cold, as the heaters had not been turned on. Given that the radiators were oil filled, we anticipated some wait before the room would warm up. We waited in our thermals and fleeces for an hour and a half before deciding that the temperature was still cold enough to complain, but unfortunately all that was offered were additional plug-in heaters.

Although the reception staff and manager were very responsive and empathetic, they were unable to offer us a room in the main hotel as it was full. We therefore requested a refund and returned home without staying. I have never stayed in a Hilton hotel before, but had always associated it with much higher standards than this hotel provided.