Maryculter House

I had been before and remembered the food was excellent. It was again but the experience was not so great due to the very slow service. One member of staff agreed to do several things at different times such as bring a menu or a bill then just vanished for ages each time then apologised when I had to walk up and ask again. Other staff were helpful and explained they were one short, but bringing a requested menu or bill shouldn't be forgotten or take ten minutes. We were using a phone and pen and paper at the table as my husband has recently become almost totally deaf, so comversation was impossible. Not sure if this made us get worse service or if that was universal this evening.

Touring Scotland we stayed four nights at the Maryculter Hotel. Our first impression on arrival was wow, lovely room, hotel had a nice ambiance located overlooking the river Dee. There was the first of two weddings taking place during our stay, certainly a lovely setting for a special occasion. Unfortunately the service in the restaurant was impacted due to these events, waiting up to an hour for the first course at dinner which appeared to be the norm for all the customers. This followed into breakfast which was slow and that’s being generous. Very understaffed, buffet while limited was not stocked and had to be requested by the guests on several occasions. We went for a light afternoon meal well within the time specified only to be told , no it’s too late, although there were five staff standing around including the bar manager. We certainly felt that the staff really didn’t care, perhaps this was emphasised when checking out. No enquiring if we enjoyed our stay and no follow up evaluation form, the only hotel of the five we visited to not follow up. The hotel is certainly not expensive and if the service matched the expectations I am sure they could increase their charges by another 25% and be able to employ more staff. This hotel has amazing potential, it’s a Jewel and could be really special perhaps the management needs to take feedback and reflect for improvement.