Islay Frigate Hotel - Tarbert

HastingsArran

I stayed here for work , booked in for 4 nights, but luckily I only had to stay for 3! Firstly, there is no lifts, to u have to take all ur luggage up by yourself. The keys have the biggest keyring so you don't take it out with you, it is massive, cannot fit in your pocket for convenience. ||The breakfast 🙈, a small quiet room, only serves from 8-9am, if you want a fried egg, make sure its cooked, I had a half raw egg, and when I said I wanted the egg cooked, because it was half raw, he didn't understand what I was getting at, it's so simple 🙈🙈.||The room was never cleaned, I had towels left at the door, but they had been in my room because I set a bottle behind the door to check, so someone had been in my room and not done anything but they left a towl and water outside the door 🤔🤔||There is no food available at night!||Radiator didn't work in the room, it was a family room, but very small, just had 4 beds, so quite cramped.||I would avoid if I were you 👍

Beth G.

I booked a double room with a shared bathroom for £75.00. I then got an invoice for £115. I emailed about the issue with Kishu, and they sorted it and upgraded the room for the very minor inconvenience.

The bar staff who checked us in were very nice and, to be honest, the highlight of the stay. The room itself was lovely but; I would have liked more plugs. The bathroom was very, very small. I feel like the room could have been made smaller and the bathroom bigger, and the experience of the stay would be elevated. There was some black mould in the shower, the middle light didn't work, and the attachment of the light to the ceiling was very loose. We also didn't have any hand soap and used the body soap from the shower (shampoo, conditioner, and body wash were provided). There were also quite a few things in the bathroom that didn't feel fully finished. The bed was comfortable, and we slept through the night.

The breakfast is the most poorly organised breakfast I have ever seen. When checking in, we were asked to book a slot for breakfast, which we did. We then turned up at the time we booked and were told that someone had come down early and taken our table. We were then assured that it was only going to be 15-20 minutes and that the member of staff would come to get us from our room. 25 minutes later we had to leave to catch our ferry on time. When we walked down, we saw that all of the tables were free and we had just been forgotten. When we told the staff member that we had to leave, he seemed confused that we had somewhere to be and that we were not available to work on their schedule. A tip to the owner/manager: don't make your guests book a slot if you cannot accommodate the slots. All in all, there are better places to stay and places that are more honest with what they provide, and I would stick with them. I would ask for my money back for the lack of breakfast, but I fear it might be too much for them after seeing how they handled breakfast.

jameslW3995LX

WE DID NOT GO ON THE DATE SHOWN - COULD NOT POST THIS EXPERIENCE WITHOUT SELECTING A DATE.||Not a good place to be in a fire!||Self and wife were only guests, the then - proprietors family family had gone south for the day. The hotel was 'empty'.... in summer?||Fire broke out in the kitchen, early morning, no fire alarm, no alarm raised by proprietor, no fire extinguisher that I could see.||Wife and I exited the bedroom window and stood on the first floor jetty window roof , there to be rescued by a fisherman who commandeered an articulated truck, parked it in the front of the hotel, and put a ladder on the truck cab roof. He helped my wife down.||We were about to depart, when screams emanated from the very top flop floor, two young girls, staff members, were trapped. So we moved the ladder and we got the two girls down safely.||I never did get that fisherman's name, he simply disappeared when the fire truck arrived.||Cannot remember when that was, perhaps in the 70's, will have to look out the newspaper cutting of the time.

Joanne B.

Bed rather small, room not to clean abd small, felt atmosphere from locals in bar nit welcoming,, plus fellow resident out shouting abd complaining about loud dj music plys smoking in hallways not good , would not really recommend !

C1683UYrichardl

At best I would describe the Islay Frigate as adequate. There are signs that this was once a characterful and well maintained hotel - those days are gone for now. Our room was described as small and it certainly was... OK for one person but a squeeze for a couple. The bed was clean and comfortable, there was tea and coffee provision in the room and the shower worked.|The stair carpet was filthy and the bannister sticky.|We were told that our breakfast would be at 9am - no discussion even though breakfast was advertised as 7am - 9am. The breakfast room was most unwelcoming with just the one table laid, most of the space occupied by stacked chairs and tables. The Porridge was OK and not salty.|We stayed just one night, that was tolerable but the general tone was downbeat and I would not recommend the Frigate.

Stevot33

Very small rooms clean and tidy| We stayed for the music festival, had to go to bed early as I didn't feel well, the music was very loud ,but I was OK with this as I was aware. But would have been nice to be given the heads up ,music didn't stop until 12am. Breakfast slot was only 45mins not alot on menu the staff did not speak very good English and struggled to understand simple requests, ordered poached eggs to go with my scottish Breakfast to be told I could only have fried or scrambled eggs even though it was on the menu| Would only stay again if it changed hands .

emmzzb

The worst service I have ever encountered. We had to book a time slot for breakfast, we were 5 minutes late and were told so in no uncertain terms. The Indian man who served us was so rude. He was incredibly blunt telling us that we were late and could not have breakfast. When I argued that we had booked in for that time and were only 5 minutes late he then allowed us to order food. He also refused the couple who came in after us but again allowed them to order after they complained. The over all experience was disgusting, no customer service or hospitality skills what so ever. Not friendly or welcoming. ||However the Scottish gentleman who booked us in and booked our breakfast time was very welcoming, friendly and should take over the hotel! ||Room was adequate

Nick

We were offered cheese sandwiches as vegan breakfast, even though on the menu they supposedly served a nice vegan breakfast. After explaining the vegan diet, the staff was unaccommodating and was only able to offer bread with butter (that would contain dairy). I could also barely turn around in my room. Luckily it was clean and I was able to sleep fine.