We booked a night in Gleneagles as a special treat as part of our honeymoon in the Highlands. Over the past few weeks we have stayed in a number of hotels ranging from 3* to 5* and to be honest Gelneagles wasn't my favourire, considering the price we paid!!

We stayed in an Estate room which was nice, but i had higher expectations. The bathroom was the best part of the room, it was beautiful, but how much time do you spend in the bathroom!! The hotel does have a grandure about it and the drive/lobby is very impressive. However i found the bar area rather dull and overpriced (£9 for a vodka and soda), the food wasn't anything to rush back for and overall the place was ok.

The best thing about the hotel is the service, the staff were very polite and helpful and made us feel special as it was our honeymoon. And the pool area was lovely.

Overall i don't think its worth the money.

We have just returned from a week at Gleneagles. We stayed in a three bedroom lodge in the Glenmor Village on the hotel grounds. This is truly a fantastic experience if you are with a family or friends, and generally much cheaper than staying in the hotel. There are 2/3 and 4 bedroom lodges available ( all have sofas which can be converted for an exrtra 2 sleepers), each bedroom has en-suite bathroom and flat screen TV and DVD facilities. The whole house has a SOROS sound system and wiring for ipods etc. Each lodge comes with bikes, and more can be hired.

All the facilites of the hotel are available at residents rates, and they will even shuttle you on demand from your lodge to the hotel and back - even though it is only a 5 minute walk- not much further than some of the rooms given the grandeur of the hotel.

We really enjoyed our week - there were 6 in our party - and there was plenty of space - and fresh croissants and bread can be delivered to your room fo rbreakfast each morning - a really relaxing experience all round.

I agree with some of the negative comments on here regarding :

1 The pool area - very tired, needs a complete overhaul. next to the new spa (which has to be one of the best spas I have ever been to - really amazing!) - the pool area looks very tattered and tired, and as one other reviewer said is frequently overrun with kids - they need to segregate an adult pool and the hot tub at least - to be of the standard of a five star hotel - the problem is there are over 1000 club members who are local residents, hence the children, and the problem in finding a refurb opportunity

2 Andrew Fairlie - The menu hasn't really changed - we have eaten there 5 times now, and there is little different on the menu except the prices which have risen by nearly 30% in 2 years - it is now more expensive to go to Andrew Fairlie than Gordon Ramsay in London. We will go back to Gleneagles but have both said we are unlikely to visit Andrew Fairlie as frequently - the food in the Strathearn is excellent, more reasonably priced, and you get a much more varied menu.

We stayed for a weekend at Gleneagles recently as part of a family celebration, mainly becasue we were keen to have dinner at Andrew Fairlie. And dinner there was the only highlight of this otherwise appalling stay. The rooms are very tired and poorly equipped - for £350 a night I expect somewhere to plug in a hairdryer that is close to a mirror and also do not expect frayed carpets and upholstery and rotten windows. We also didn't have any water on the Saturday morning so couldn't have showers/baths before breakfast and neither did anyone else in our wing but there was no apology from the hotel let alone any compensation. We were told by reception staff that they couldn't understand what the problem was as we could use the showers in the swimming pool instead?! Not really a 5 star response.....especially when the pool and changing rooms were full of screaming children, not exactly a pleasant start to the day.
The public rooms and corridors of the hotel are horrendous, it doesn't look like the hotel has been decorated or refurbished for decades. The Strathearn restaurant is dark and dreary although the service for dinner was good. Try to avoid the busy times for breakfast as there tend to be queues for the cooked breakfast buffet items as they run out of most things frequently. Also, beware of the dinner menu at the Strathearn (the only place to eat as the other restaurant is in the health club and is clearly aimed at young families), we only had two courses on the Friday night as we had been out for lunch and in fact, I only had two starters but were all still charged for the full 3 course menu, i.e. £50 a head plus wine. We live in London so are happy with London prices but this was really poor value for money in comparison.
The hotel has a good gym and pool but just beware that it is used heavily by local members and not just hotel guests so it can be really busy at weekends.
We had an excellent meal in Andrew Fairlie on the Saturday night but it was somewhat marred by the fact that the hotel was hosting a conference for a property company on the same night so the music from their function was blaring and could be clearly held in Andrew Fairlie. The corridors and bar were also full of drunk people from the conference play fighting or being somewhat friendly with each other which kind of spoiled the ambience of the hotel. This was also not ideal as the function room shared the same toilets as Andrew Fairlie and my mum came back from one trip saying she was horrified to find people had been taking drugs in the bathroom! Overall, the hotel seems to have lost its way and is crying out for a refurb. We were keen to share our comments with the hotel manager and asked to speak to a duty manager when we checked out but the woman we spoke to on reception (Helen) was clearly not interested in hearing any comments so we decided to leave and submit this review instead. When we paid our bill, we realised that the hotel had charged my parents for all the little surprises we had organised for them (such as champagne in their room and a birthday cake which should have been billed to us as it had been arranged in advance) and again, didn't care or apologise that my parents had then seen what everything had cost which was poor. At the cost of £1300 per couple for two nights, this was a very disappointing stay and we would never go back.

We stayed in the Gleneagles for three nights in February, had a fabulous time, first thing that strikes one is the grand entrance and valet service, the service is immaculate, we were given a room at the back of the hotel which had terrible views over the pool so I asked to change and was given a room in the new section of the hotel without any fuss, rooms are large with a great view and all you would want. On the first night we ate in Deseo which was very disappointing big bright gimicky restaurant with poor food, we ate there again on Sunday night and it didn’t improve. Sat night however we ate in Andrew Fairlie and it was superb, worth the trip alone. The bar was old style with a very friendly manager who knew whisky inside out, it is expensive but it is a luxury to sit drinking champagne in the afternoon. Breakfast was pretty good with plenty of choice. There is a row of little gift shops which are pretty tacky and really take from the tone of the hotel. The pool was only adequate as well as it was full of kids and I thought they should not have been allowed to the outdoor pool.

Overall I think it really is a wonderful place to visit and to unwind, I would recommend not straying too far from the hotel and just relax and pamper yourself.