Hi Folks,
You are now part of a serious market survey!
What would you be looking for in accommodation for a fishing trip?
Take decent fishing as read.
We are talking about a hotel, bunkhouse or self-catering only, no campsite or B&B requirements please.
Bear in mind that prices will be set by market forces, so there is no point in looking for five star service at a one star price.
And this is Scotland.
Drying room or Sky Sports in the bar?
Whilst I am certain you will post some of your usual pish, and you'll guess what this is really about, but try to take it seriously.
There could be a subsidised stravaig in it for you!
This might come across all city :gay4, but cleanliness is right up there for me.
Spartan is fine with me - all I'm after a day on the hill is a bed and a roof over my head - but if the place is looks like it needs a good clean it puts me right off. A decent set of black-out curtains is always welcome as well - I'm a light sleeper and the early light in the summer can be a right pain in the posterior.
Aside from that, a cosy bar with wholesome, reasonably priced food is always a winner.
Oh, and a smile and being made to feel you're a valued customer is always good - I've stayed in too many places in the highlands where you're made to feel you're putting them out. Only once in each one, mind. Like people's houses, the ones where you felt welcome are the ones you back to!
Flexibility, good humour and decent grub. After that im happy , but yes a dry room way above sky sports and if they can do a decent pack lunch so much the better. Seems to be a food theme for me :roll:
Self Catering
Clean
Warm
Dog friendly
All appliances in working order.
Sufficient, crockery, cutlery, pots, pans, utensils
Absolutely no TV – nothing pisses me off more in company that someone insisting on watching the X Factor when others are trying to be sociable or discuss fishing and / or related subjects.
Heated Drying Room and / or tumble drier
Sufficient room to hang up / store gear
Comfortable beds
Comfortable sitting / communal area
Ample parking
No neds
Hotel
Clean
Warm
Dog friendly
No TV - especially in the bar
Heated Drying Room and / or tumble driers
Sufficient room to hang up / store gear
Comfortable rooms
Good basic food at reasonable prices – after a day on the hills / fishing I want steak pie and chips or a large ashet of haggis neeps and tatties not sautéed goose livers held in baby Lochinver crab claws with sun-dried sultanas simmered in chateauneuf du pape and costing £50 a throw.
Option of taking B&B only and eating in the bar rather than in the restaurant.
Nice comfy bar with good beer
A hotelier who fishes, appreciates and understands his fishing guests – John at the Forsnaird is a good example. Not always possible of course.
Table waiters with clean hands
No neds
I was tempted to put in a price range, but this is pointless as everyone will have different ideas about what's acceptable and most of us will have no idea of the costs of running these places – the owners must be able to make a profit because if they don't they won't be there in a year's time.
good home cooked food
a good power shower
a comfortable bed
and clean
a hearty breakfast
dislikes
if sharing a room a noisy sleeper (snoring bastards)
hot beer
neds running about the corridors at all hours of the night
small country hotel, friendly staff, real ales (keg, not bottled) real fire, superb breakfast, decent bar menu (freshly cooked produce, no microwave crap). definitely drying room over tv, but a lively bar with locals makes for a good atmosphere. would some good live music be too much to ask? for example: allanton inn nr. duns
i've got no spare cash, but if i'm paying i'd rather have this than s/c, when i'd prefer to camp and have a decent inn nearby! examples: whatever the pub is next to the campsite at gairloch, plume of feathers at princetown
Not fussy about decor but prefer less.
Comfy bed with clean cotton bedding.
Good Shower and warm bathroom.
Kettle,tea etc.
Pub nearby or on the premises.
Good food nearby or on premises.
Storage for gear etc.
Glass of decent wine as a bonus.
Warm and a decent shower!
1. Has to be a place with a bit of character
2. Warm clean rooms with piping hot water be it shower /bath and available 24/7
3. Preferred drying room for the odd wet day we get in Scotland
4. Good honest wholesome food and real ale as a bonus but Chemical beer will do suffice
5. Fine selection of Scotland's finest malts to ponder over after a hard day on the loch /river
6. Good company
7. And a couple of Filipino female maids to rub you down with hot oil and warm stones to relax you before supper :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Very much depends.
Am I alone or with a group?
First I want a good shower and a comfortable, clean bed. Food? Hot and fresh - no micro crap. It does not have to be fancy. Steak pie, fish and chips, lasgne etc. Fresh cooked breakfast, not a buffet.
Decent beer. Although I appreciate smaller places cannot keep a wide range of real ales it is possible today to get decent bottles.
Sympathetic to fishing. Drying room. Flexible hours. I might want an early start or a late finish.
Anything else will depend on how much I am asked to pay.
Oh and is good if the boss has contacts and can get you access to the fishing.
If SWMBO is not with me then it is about the fishing and that will probably do.
A.
PS. It is OK if Fred's dug can stay.
I'm not much of a hotel person when on stravaig in the UK, prefering the flexibility that comes with tent or self-catering cottage (esp if there are a few of us). I have done quite a few alpine huts, bunk-houses and hostels over the years but - being a fairly anti-social type by nature - I generally prefer my own space to kip-in of an evening, be it a bedroom or tent, rather than dorm-style rooms of farting, snoring and shuffling around in the dark. Not to mention those getting serious alpine early starts or late to bed waking everyone else.
For a self catering place I'm prety much in agreement with everyone else that it's got to be clean (whether it's basic and cheap or expensive and well equipped, clean is a must). There needs to be enough room for kit to be stored and hung - a drying room would be ideal. A friendly pub with decent freshly-cooked and unpretentious scoff, real ales and a range of malts should be nearby - either staggering distance or a short drive. If it's self catering you've got to be able to actually cater for yourself so a proper set of functioning cooking and eating gear is a must - as is a decent sized fridge/freezer with plenty of room for food and beers, fish taken for the pot etc. For me a TV is useful for news and weather forecasts etc but isn't an essential. With places at the cheap and basic end of the market I don't mind pay-as-you-go elctricity or phones etc. But if I'm paying good money for somewhere more upmarket, I expect it to be all-inclusive and not to be messing about with extras at the end. More basically, if you're on holidays in the highlands or islands you expect your accommodation to be somewhere scenic and representative of that landscape so not e.g. in a housing estate on the outskirts of Fort William with a view over the neighbour's conservatory.
Ian
On the other end of that, breakfast available beyond 9am for the people who enjoyed the night before!
1. Powerful shower, nothing nothing worse than a lame mira sport electric dribble.- this is my main gripe where ever i go.
2. Comfy bed.
3. Pub grub - value, quality, quantity.
4. In this day and age - free wifi
5. Hallways adorned with useful local info, photos, maps etc.
If doing a bunk-house consider privacy curtains on the beds, they are great and go a long way to helping you forget there are others in the room, although i have outgrown this now and due to my snoring would rather ruff it in a small single than a dorm.
Have you considered pods? could be a unique selling point? Might take a while to recover the outlay though.
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I usually go self catering so I can come and go as I please , eat when I'm hungry and sleep when I'm tired. It just needs to be clean and in the right place with access to heat and food , usually only eat breakfast in the place and eat out for other food.
If it's just for me, on a fishing/birdwatching/walking trip
Fresh and clean - I stayed in some dives in my youth. If it's a tip I'll be on my way.
Single room - I snore, don't want to listen to other people snore, appreciate they don't want to listen to me. Means I can get up, go to bed when I like without waking everybody else up.
Comfortable bed
Don't want to listen to a load of extraneous noise during the night.
Preferably en suite but at least decent clean and adequate facilities for the number of people, with a decent shower.
Good fresh breakfast. Simple well cooked meal in the evening, not reconstituted or microwaved.
Good communal area a few cask beers, bottles of decent beers if delivery is a problem and a couple of decent malts. Doesn't matter whether it's a bar or a lounge but must be conducive to socialising. No TV but free WiFi.
A decent drying room.
Enough parking space - I hate parking my car in the ditch.
A proprietor/staff who understand what you're about, even if they thinks you're barking and remembers it is you that is paying them.
Free wifi?
When away fishing I don't even care if my phone doesn't work. I do not need TV either.
A.
A roof.
Alex
Quote from: guest on May 19, 2013, 12:03:09 AM
Anything that smells better than the Crask
To be fair how The Crask smells depends on when you go. :D
The Crask is a good example of what you get for the money you pay. It is cheap, but cheap can also attract rif raf who'd rather spend their money on booze than accommodation. QED. The hotel is fine apart from the fact there is no power overnight and if you get ill during the night it is an ordeal. The cottage is awful and it beats me how it has been able to remain open on a paid for accommodation basis in these days of H&S . I would not stay in it - I didn't! It is only marginally less expensive than the wonderful hostel we hire exclusively for our end of season outing and there is just no comparison. That place ticks just about every box members have mentioned in the preceding posts. Oh - and the fishing is much more extensive and better too!
Quotebut its hard to see what you get for the extra cash.
Exclusivity!
You go to the bar for a swift G&T and it is not full of 20 damp anglers, swilling ale and telling tall stories. We tried to book a hotel in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago. £200 was not much better than a Travelodge. Jury's was over £300. Some were over £500 - for just a room.
Value for money is a very subjective title. We are heading north next week. £65/person/night DB&B. The place is warm and comfortable. The beer is good and the food is better. The bed and the shower are very good. And there is free fishing on the doorstep. For me that is great VfM.
A.
Quote from: alancrob on May 20, 2013, 06:48:03 PM
We are heading north next week. £65/person/night DB&B. The place is warm and comfortable. The beer is good and the food is better. The bed and the shower are very good. And there is free fishing on the doorstep.
When you consider a day ticket can now seldom be had for under £10 that makes your DB&B £55
Quote from: alancrob on May 20, 2013, 06:48:03 PM
For me that is great VfM.
Cleanliness, warm, convenient, pampered, decent food, nae neds - for a "real" price of £55 / night that's not bad.
Fred see the comments on the Crask is this on the hotel or the self catering cottage ! Have a few friends who were thinking of booking up for a week is it that bad !!! Can you pm with details
Just did a seach on Trip Advisor and all reports come back glowing bar a couple
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The hotel is fine Colin. The food is plain, unpretentious and there is lots of it. The power does go off overnight though. I would not stay in the cottage if I was paid to. Did it once many years ago. That was enough.
Cheers will pass on the info ! take it that was the place that was full of vermin that came out to cuddle in at night !
Quote from: superscot on May 20, 2013, 10:14:52 PM
Cheers will pass on the info ! take it that was the place that was full of vermin that came out to cuddle in at night !
Tell them to quadruple check any bookings they make.
nothing wrong with tv and internet access to check forecasts and post trooty pics on forums
basically what has ruined fishing hotels for me is: poncy grub, late breakfasts, crap boats/engines, fussy rule-obsessed owners
drying room is great idea