Royal Hotel

Disappointing stay Basic facility with little to offer

Good location, bizzare decoration. New shower and toilet. Needs a new carpet up the stairs. OK for one night visit. Don't advise a week there. You may find cheaper rates nearby at the Queen's Hotel. Continental breakfast only, which was OK.

Ok for a few nights The hotel does not look very appealing from the outside (barely recognisable as a hotel) and the lack of reception and breakfast in your room is a bit odd. That said, my room was as per the photos, airy, clean and comfortable. The manager was helpful and the breakfast in the room was perfectly fine. It was all ok for me for a few nights on a work trip, but not what I would call a leisure hotel.

Stayed in a double room for one night whilst visiting family. The room was spacious and clean and had excellent amenities. Lots of toiletries and continental breakfast was good. Sky sports was a nice benefit.

We were staying overnight in Girvan to attend a family event. We booked a room in the Royal Hotel with breakfast through **********. When we arrived at 2pm to check in, the hotel looked shut down. There was scaffolding covering the hotel front and no sign to say business as usual. We phoned the hotel honestly thinking we had nowhere to stay that night. They answered and said the hotel was open we were to park round the side and come in the side door. We were dismayed to enter the hotel to find something that resembled a building site with plastic all over the carpets and up the stairs. I said this was not what I was expecting and was told quite rudely that renovations had to be carried out. I would have at least expected a call in advance of our stay to warn us that this was the state the place would be in, giving us the option to cancel. There is no resemblance to the photos on the website. The first room we were shown to was stinking of cigarettes and when we complained we were told again rudely that this was not the case. We were given another room at the top of the hotel. On the plus side, the bedding and towels were clean and the room was equipped with sky tv. There were complimentary toiletries and the continental breakfast was plentiful. However, the carpet was old, shabby with burn marks on it;there was a hole in the floor in the toilet, the waste from the wash hand basin was rising uphill causing the waste not to drain properly; there was only 1 lightbulb in a 3 bulb fitting; an electrical connector block was sticking out of the wall in the toilet; the toilet cistern was not secured to the wall causing to bang every time it was used. The curtains and furniture were shabby and the whole room was very tired and run down. For £90 for a night this was overpriced and although we were not using a bar or restaurant if we had been expecting this and it was not available as highlighted by other reviewers then this would have compounded the disappointment of the overall run down and very shabby hotel. We will not be returning .

We had a very enjoyable two night stay in the Royal to attend a wedding nearby. There is no reception desk but if you ring the owner he appears instantly and is very attentive. This is an old building. Some parts of it have obviously been renovated and there is still work to do. Our room was clean and comfortable and we were pleasantly surprised to discover that we had Sky TV so we could watch live Open Golf. We had a fridge in the room and the basic breakfast provided was fresh and enough to keep us going - it also allowed us to get up when we wanted and to take our time. We had a drink in the bar and a meal in the restaurant on the Thursday night. My wife has mobility problems so was not keen to go very far so we appreciated and enjoyed this. Don't allow the exagerrated, negative reviews on this site to put you off.