Inverness Palace Hotel & Spa WorldHotels Distinctive

My wife and I had a wonderful stay at Best Western Inverness Palace Hotel and Spa. We were staying at a neighboring hotel that was terrible in everyway. We stayed one night there and walked to Palace Hotel and spoke with Patrick about the issues we were having with the other property. Fortunately, they had availability and Patrick assured us that they would have a nice room available in the afternoon. True to his word, the room was wonderful. It was clean, beautifully decorated, and very quite. The entire staff was friendly, professional, and welcoming. Great location also. Very pleased!

Located on Ness Walk almost directly opposite Inverness Castle this is a great hotel location being only 5-10 minutes away from almost any location in Inverness city centre. The hotel is very popular with coach tours so the lobby fills up with tourists and thrir luggage around 8 in the morning and 5 in the afternoon. I was initially in across in the annexe on the other side of the car park (just about adequate) and the room was pretty small but quiet. For my last night I was moved to the main building which was a bit of a hassle. The hotel has good amenities including a spa and a pool a lounge bar and restaurant. Reception staff are friendly and helpful but rushed off their feet at coach changeover time.

The staff are exceptional, and it is in a truly great location along the river, but that’s where it ends. To begin, our room was about 85 degrees F when we walked in. While I do understand that it is a Victorian era building, small splitters (air conditioning units) could have been installed at very little cost, and could have easily cooled the square footage of the room. Moving on, in your home, the kitchen and bath are the two places where you’d spend the most money for upgrades. Since most hotels don’t have a kitchen, the bathroom is where you’d expect a 4 star hotel to have very nice finishes. That was not the case here. The sink and shower drains in our room backed up, and the shower overflowed onto the floor. The flooring was a cheap linoleum that had been glued to the floor and up the base of the wall. When I brought this to the attention of the hotel management, they asked several times if we’d just left the shower on and walked away. Neither of us took a shower over 10 minutes. And because we’d booked it on Expedia, they told us they weren’t able to give us a refund. The hotel restaurant was packed to the brim, and was as loud as sitting in a crowded airport terminal. About as far from relaxing and refined as you can get. This hotel is on a tour bus stop, and it’s more for herding cattle through a chute than it is for truly taking care of guests. I hate it for the staff who do try very hard to help where they can, but spend an extra $60 and go somewhere else. That’s what we did.