Macdonald Aviemore Woodland Lodges

Booked and paid £878 for a three bedroom lodge with Wi-Fi in all rooms for 2 nights. Arrived, booked in got to the lodge and discovered the Wi-Fi was down. Rang reception told Wi-Fi had been down for a week, plenty of time to sort out an alternative source of Wi-Fi for the lodges. Expressed my displeasure and was told the Duty Manager would ring me with an update. No phone call all weekend so when we booked out on Sunday and complained again I was told the Manager would ring me. Tuesday afternoon now and no phone call, very poor customer service. The lodges are spacious and all bedrooms have large en-suites but they are badly in need of maintenance and refurbishment. The stair carpet in our lodge was threadbare, the sofa shabby, the seats on the dinning chairs stained and the handrail on the stairs up to the lodge very wobbly. Not what you expect for the price we paid. Saving grace was the weather was wonderful all weekend.

Stayed for a weekend with family lodge was clean and had all we needed, the downside was the service, staff were distant, uninterested and focused more on their own social lives than those of their customers. A suggestion would be invest in training for staff and new managers who have life experience to deal with customers and unprofessional staff. We only ate once on site but would suggest eating on the high street as the value and service is more family friendly.

I really want this place to be better it’s so well positioned but mainly it’s unloved and poorly managed. The good we ate in the restraunt in the highlands hotel which was excellent, the welcome at check in was great, the lodges are spacious. The bad lights in the street up to the lodges were mainly out replaced midway through our stay, pitch dark walk back from the main hotels and pool, lights at the lodge were out replaced next day, there was a hole in the wall of our lodge and in one of the chairs. The games room wasn’t open at the pool on requesting it to be opened the response was we only open It during the Scottish school holidays or weekends despite us being their during English school holiday time with English friends accompanying us with their kids at our recommendation an absolute embarrassment for Scotland. it was open later following a discussion with management, pool opening hours were limited which was fine but when it was open 80% of the space as taken up for lessons which they certainly didn’t need appreciate there needs to be a balance but it needs better managed the young pool attendants just seemed to do whatever the swimming lessons team asked for, the slide was also switched off during lessons as the swimming lessons complained it was too noisy absolute nonsense, breakfast was good but for the first two days they created unnecessary congestion by sitting out empty warming trays every morning taking up space for no reason frustrations guests how all opened up empty trays, instead of spreading out the food they did have which they eventually clicked to do after raising it to management it’s basic stuff. Hopefully they get a management team who put in more effort but the reality is likely with there location they’ll continue the mediocre maintenance and I’ll probably stay again because if you want to stay somewhere in Aviemore for kids with a pool it’s your only option. Such a shame such potential.