Isle of Eriska Hotel, Spa & Island

First of all, I have stayed in some fabulous 5* hotels, home and abroad such as Chewton Glen, which are truly the finest standard you can imagine. I expected the same from the Isle of Eriska after having paid similar money of £650 per night. Sadly, this wasn't the case. CHECK IN - Very quick and efficient. I had originally booked lunch 2.45 to allow my wife to have her spa treatment at 3.30, but had phoned to change lunch to 2.15 and spa to 3.15. The lunch booking was messed up, and we were served lunch at 2.50 and had to rush this as the spa at 3.15 was fully booked with no movement - not ideal. AFTERNOON TEA - was very nice, but I cannot say it was worth the money. 8 finger sandwiches, 4 scones and 4 bite-sized cakes for £80? Not worth it by a long way. ROOM - not the Spa suite as advertised on the website, the room was nice, but nothing like the advertised room. I found it very disjointed, like there were many bits of other rooms put in this room, and nothing matched. Plastic chairs at the glass table and desk? 5* nope! It was nice enough, but if I had seen this before I booked, I wouldn't have booked it for this type of money. We're talking £650 per night - I think it certainly wasn't worth this, perhaps £400 at a push, taking into account the hot tub. Too many small things overlooked - lots of chipped paintwork, cracks in the ceiling, really shabby wallpaper repairs, a control missing for the media wall fire, dressing table seen better years under the glass cover - a little bit of paint repair? Bedside cabinet, the same - a little bit of TLC. True 5* hotels don't miss these small things. When you pay top dollar, you expect the best. Eriska disappointed. Management needs to be hauled over the coals, big time. BATHROOM - Quite excellent, beautiful. Great shower and rolltop bath. HOT TUB - Private hot tub was fully prepared and ready to go, very clean, excellent. BAR - Very well run by Jordan, I believe. Wonderful staff member, great way of working with the clients and working the room. Top class. RESTAURANT - Kiaran, the restaurant manager, is the star of the show, an absolute credit to the hotel. Superb personality, charisma and way of interacting with guests is second to none. An absolute cut above any other staff member I've encountered elsewhere. He made us feel very comfortable and, more importantly, feel special without being OTT. The real lasting impression I leave Eriska with is his chat and character. A superstar. SPA - I never had treatments, but my wife did; she said it was right up there with the best she's had. Faultless. FOOD - Main house 1* Michelin menu - It was utterly superb, presentation was sublime, food delicious, service top notch. You cannot fault it. 10/10. Waiting staff superb. GROUNDS - very pretty place, great venue. Maps were provided, etc. What must change, though, is the signposting around the map points - it was very poor. Signposts on the route need to be more frequent and better signposted. IE "you are here" MARSHALL SOUND SYSTEM - superb bit of kit, so good I bought myself one upon return. Massive well done to whoever decided on these in the rooms!!!!! OVERALL. Honest opinion? I had high expectations due to price, and as I mentioned, I benchmark all on Chewton Glen now. Eriska fell way short on rooms, way short. With some TLC and better maintenance, this would have changed many of the bad aspects - management needs to walk through each room and open their eyes every week. The Sage suite we were in wasn't a 5* room. Perhaps visit the likes of Chewton Glen to see the minute details that are being missed here? If you charge the same prices, you need to provide the same standard. This needs to be addressed, rather quickly, I would suggest. Work to be done. Staff are great and holding this place together. WOULD I STAY HERE AGAIN? At £650 a night? No, not worth the money. If they address the issues highlighted, yes, probably. Sort out the horrendous coordination in Sage and any other suites - it looks like a mismatch of all the other leftover furniture.

Super comfortable bed, lovely Manor House sat on a private island “Isle of Eriska”. This place is beautiful. It’s so quiet and relaxing. My wife and I went because she loves to relax and loves a spa experience. I love to walk around and explore surroundings, this place had both. If you love the seclusion of nature in an old manor estate with amazing service, then please go and try this place. The team were amazing, they couldn’t do enough to make sure we had a great experience. We will be back to visit again and would recommend it to anyone asking. Thank you to the team at Eriska!

Poor communication where things are and activities. My son had a shooting activity, we waited at the site, was not told to meet at the main house. Map did not help, signage was also confusing. Meals were ok. Beautiful area. No elevators………..

Isle of Eriska could be amazing but it is not quite there. We stayed in one of the apartment style units in the treetops area. These units are fantastic and I would highly recommend them. Well configured, good space, clean, great bed and nice view. The food options at the hotel are not great at all especially in the evenings. We went to other places some because food was just not great at night. The hotel is a bit worn and needs some infusion of cash. I was disappointed that they no longer have the short six hole golf course. The pool was good and the staff were helpful.

I was due to stay with my mother early May. We arrived after a day exploring and was greeted and checked in at the hotel. We had booked a 2 bedroom cottage (b n b £900) hence were expecting a high standard and quality. How wrong could we be, the two bed cottage was dirty, scruffy, not secure and electric cables handing through a emergency exit which clearly hadn’t been checked for a few weeks due to the amount of leaves in the door way. There were ring marks on most sides, no pillow protectors, the windows didn’t lock, you couldn’t open the top part of the sash hence didn’t feel safe sleeping down stairs. The carpet was dirty and had not been hoovered. To add insult they even showed me and my mother a spa suit and suggested I could sleep on the sofa …. NO On entering the main house myself and my other they were trying to move us to a different so people couldn’t hear our complaints. The manager came swiftly and dealt with my request for a full refund promptly …. The receptionist was not appropriately dressed for a ‘5 star’ A long way from a 5 star and I must say it is a self proclaimed 5 star as nothing me and mother saw was 5 star.