Holiday Apartments in Aberdeenshire

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Jenny - Verified booking

  Thank you for giving me this opportunity to feed back my disappointment with my recent stay at the Dalvorar flat in Mar Lodge.

  I would very much like my feedback forwarded to the NTS, which owns and manages the flat, and to receive a reply. Two points. One, the brass edging on the carpeted trap door (for underfloor heating perhaps?) in the living room was loose and thus both a trip hazard and rather sharp -- a potential bare-foot-cutting hazard too. We put a book on top of it while we were there but it needs to be repaired. Secondly, the thing that really spoilt my holiday: polyester in the sheets in a super-expensive top-of-the-range holiday let, really? I have always struggled to sleep in bedding that isn't 100 per cent cotton or linen and often travel with my own sheet -- but I didn't this time because I just assumed the bedding at Mar Lodge would be fine, given how much the rent was (cheap-and-nasty bedding is usually more of a problem at the cheaper end of the market). The problem -- quite a common one -- is that the bedding overheats in hot weather and gets clammy, which is what happened to me last week. I had broken sleep for four nights out of a seven-night stay and it spoilt my holiday and made me really quite angry. While stripping the beds as requested at the end of our stay I found a label that said sheets were 50 per cent polyester, 50 per cent cotton -- this is less cotton than you get in a bed at Travelodge. It's really, really shocking in a place that presents itself as so grand, supposedly, and charges so much. I'd like to hear an explanation as to why the NTS thinks 50-50 poly cotton sheets are ok. My husband also points out that now global warming is heating up even the Scottish summer, other places we've stayed now have electric fans in bedrooms as standard, and suggests the NTS does this at its properties too.

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• Philip - Verified booking

  With regards our stay at Dalvorar : 1.

  There was no hot water from the bath/shower on our first day. After numerous requests (most staff had returned home after check in time) a handyman did attend on the second day and switched off a limiter under the bath which rectified the problem. 2. The bedroom used by my wife and I was not cleaned correctly and a sanitary towel has been left under the bed. 3. The photos provided by yourselves when we booked the property did not reflect the extensive refit changes made. Whilst the kitchen and toilets were sympathetically upgraded the bedrooms and sitting room were very different. Changing the decor from understated Hunting Lodge to Fairytale Castle/Paint by numbers could only be for the wedding market and not for clients who have been visiting Mar Lodge for over 25 years. 4. In the kitchen the large plastic trees (orange and lemon) in the kitchen do not really back up your eco stance. The overhanging artificial plants are a fire hazard. At a cost of over £200 per night I see no reason to return.

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• Christine - Verified booking

  We've stayed in Dalvorar many times over the last 10 years, always loved it, hence regularly returning.

  However it has been redecorated and refurbished, and we really didn't like it. The biggest bed now takes all the space in the smallest bedroom. The biggest bedroom has terrible wallpaper and superfluous canopies over the bed. The living room has awful murals over all the walls and is dark and dingy night and day. The light is not good enough to read in there. There was some beautiful furniture with mirrors that made it feel much lighter before, also a nice footstool come games table which was lovely to use. The bathroom has a weird plain yellow "picture" and what you might call naive painting all over the bath. The kitchen revamp is good although you have to be 6 foot to reach most cupboard space. Why you have put plastic flowers and a plastic lemon tree in there I really don't know. We won't be staying in Dalvorar again and I see from the website that the other apartments have been redecorated in a far more sympathetic fashion. We love Mar lodge but don't like what has been done to Dalvorar.

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• Ann - Verified booking

  It was all just wonderful except the shower.

  The place was amazingly clean with spacious rooms, furnished beautifully and all had amazing views. The estate itself was a haven of beauty! The shower though was over a very high side Victorian bath with mixer taps and long shower curtains. Getting in and out the shower was difficult for short legs and there was no hand rail. The mixer taps were difficult to use to get a comfortable temperature once in the shower, as very low done. If water was too hot or too cold there was no room for manoeuvre in the shower. Shower curtain too long and got trapped under shower mat and in own feet making things a bit slippy. There was nowhere in the shower to put toiletries as bath tray (if used) left a gap in the curtains which then flooded floor. Note also there are no lifts in the building if you were relying on them. Not an issue for fit and healthy people just means a few trips up the stairs with luggage. Everything else was just brilliant though! Well worth a visit!

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• Christopher - Verified booking

  It was a great break, the location was perfect.

  But what happened to the Snow? I suppose we will have to wait until next year!! The quality of the accommodation was excellent. Specifically the quality of the beds and their linen was 5 star and so important when the weather outside was -10c, and we sleep with the windows open.The library sitting room was an added bonus. The Mar Estate grounds and space, the river Dee on its boundary. A quick hop and skip to (Cairngorm's) Lairig Ghru. What more could you ask for? Ho, I forgot the staff! They know their jobs and don't they execute really well. Thank you.

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