Blackfriars

Las escaleras

No fridge

We were a little disappointed that the room was not ready for check-in time and the staff weren't really on the front foot for suggesting we leave our bags and head out to explore, but once we realised that the rooms were not going to be ready we asked if we could store our bags stored and went out for a walk.

Pillows were not very good and the room could be a bit cleaner, especially the floors.

The Experience:
We booked what we thought was a hotel, but it is actually guest rooms above a bar/restaurant Upon arrival in 0°C weather with three children, we waited over 5 minutes for the bartender to finish serving drinks before we could check in; although they mention a "reception" at the entrance, the check-in is actually just a section beside the bar counter.
The room was freezing; the radiators were barely lukewarm. Despite being told the heating "needed 30 minutes," it never warmed up. Management acted surprised, but when I checked, previous reviews showed the same room type had the same issue in the previous days.. Although they initially proposed, no electric heater was available (guess why), so our family of five was offered only a single extra blanket for the night (which I refused as it almost seemed insulting as a solution for me).

The Room Condition:
The room is not well-maintained, but we didn't even mention this at the time as we were preoccupied with the lack of heat. After a night with no good sleep due to the cold, we had a freezing wake-up the following morning and tried to leave as soon as possible, making clear that they had to do something about it while we were away for the whole day.

The Refund Deception:
The heating was finally fixed for the second night. At check-out, the host acknowledged the unacceptable first night and proactively offered a 50% refund. They instructed me to request it through Booking.com since the payment was handled there. However, once the formal request was made, the host reneged on their word and refused to authorize the refund they had suggested.

Summary:
You are paying hotel prices for a guest house /b&b room with unreliable facilities and management that does not honor its word. I would strongly recommend staying elsewhere. Not sure what the owner might comment but obviously I have no interest in saying something which is not true or different from the experience I had.

Breakfast could have been better . Toast with the breakfast could have been toasted more. Bacon very hard to chew
Couldn’t get the radiator in bedroom to work

The stair leading to the first floor bedrooms was very dark and lighting didn’t come on until you were half way down which made it difficult to see. Also the central heating in the bedroom didn’t work. A stand alone heater was provided but didn’t want to leave on when out the room so every time you entered the bedroom it was cold.

It was freezing cold. Heating didnt work. We had a small heater but the bathroom was freezing. We did report it to staff on the first day but no one came to see us. February in Inverness without heating is unpleasant

Nothing

The noises of the wooden floors from the above and adjacent rooms were strange and annoying at first but we kinda got use to it

Leaking bathtub, no soapor shampoo near the bathtub, bit of noise in one corner of the room between 10 and 11 pm