The Royal Hotel Tain

I booked this hotel as it was central to a venue for a family party and close to where family stay too. As it was me & my dad, I booked 2 rooms via ***********. I was very pleased with the rate as it included breakfast. On arrival, I was pleased to see there were plenty of parking spaces in the car park to the side of the hotel. We were greeted by a very friendly member of staff who checked us in quickly. Our rooms were next to each other on the 2nd floor (35 & 36). Tip: There is no lift - there are a lot of stairs. The rooms were definitely big enough. We had 2 single beds in each room. Rooms were very clean. There were complimentary toiletries (shower gel, soap & shampoo), tea, coffee, water & biscuits. The towels were soft and fluffy. There was a hairdryer, iron & ironing board in the room. Good sized wardrobe with appx 10 hangers. The WiFi worked fine in the room. I called reception to obtain the password to log on. I hadn't realised the heaters weren't working until I'd returned from a family party in the early hours of the morning. (Room key opens the front door too - if reception is closed). The room was freezing. I'm sure if I'd realised earlier, the staff would have rectified it for me. I found a blanket in the wardrobe that I put over the duvet, which helped a little. The bed was very comfortable, with good-sized duvet & soft pillows. The shower was nice and warm with good water pressure. There was a bath mat available if needed. The breakfast choices were plentiful. There were lots to choose from. Breads, cereals, cheeses, fruits, yoghurts, juices, tea, coffee, water, and various cooked breakfast options. We had a round of toast while we waited for our traditional & vegetarian breakfasts. These were cooked perfectly and tasted delicious. Check-out was quick and efficient. We would definitely return to this hotel. The staff were friendly and helpful. Highly recommended.

Friendly helpful staff but the hotel is disgusting. The flies in the bar and reception should have been a tell tail sign. We checked in but didn’t go to our rooms until after midnight. When we did we were shocked at just how bad they were. The mattress is all springs and the bedding was damp but worse than that was the dirt.

Visited as part of our trip around the NC500, the Royal Tain Hotel was a great place to stay, friendly & accomodating staff super restaurant food, comfortable, clean bedrooms. Exactly what I expected at this price point & I will stay again next time I am in the area.

This is a character hotel and as such the decor is outdated compared with modern bistro hotels but our room was spotlessly clean and very comfortable. We received a warm welcome from Ayaz who carried our luggage upstairs for us and offered an upgraded room but we preferred to stay in the twin room we had booked. Dinner was amazing, well cooked and delicious, we had the special of lamb chops and there were five on the plate. Breakfast was well cooked and delicious too. Ayaz couldn't have done more to ensure we had a good stay and we would definitely stay there again if we are in the area. Both my husband and myself thought it was the best night of our 9 day trip. and at a reasonable price too.

Although an older hotel the Royal Tain was a great place to stay, it was clean & well maintained, with very friendly & helpful staff & great food in the restaurant. Excellent value as well, a great place for a first night on the NC 500

My one night stay here was truly awful and disgusting. Upon arrival, I was confronted by reception, which was a hotch-potch of miscellaneous objects and junk piled up behind it, looking dirty and disorganised. My room was very dated in terms of its decor and not very clean. Parts of the chipboard wallpaper were missing and someone had ironed the bedroom carpet, leading to a big mark on the floor. The exceptionally old intercoms system was still in situ (albeit not working) and the light switches were at least 30 years old, quite possibly outdating current regulations. The bathrooms was extremely shabby and dirty, with a disgusting shower curtain; the bathroom sink also had a massive crack in it and the pine wooden toilet seat was far from hygienic. On top of this, the room was very, very cold and the heating less than useful; I left the heater on for many hours including overnight and this made little difference to the room temperature. The bed was anything but comfortable and I could not sleep well at all. I elected to have an evening meal in the hotel - this was one of the worst experiences of my life. Upon entering an empty dining room with no one showing me to a seat, a random barman said to sit anywhere and I was handed an extremely crumpled and stained two page paper menu; this was significantly different from the full menu on display in my room. I chose the local burger, which was to be served with onion rings, and salad, and chips. It was disgusting - the quality was terribly poor and it tasted very bad. I was offered condiments and these were served as previously opened/used bottles from a box of these. It was then that I noticed that breakfast options for the next day were already out for display; about ten to twelve family size boxes of cereal, many of them if not all lying open at the top. This made me consider carefully what to do the next morning. Upon conclusion of my main course, I was offered a look at the desert menu; this arrived from the waiter in an apologetic fashion, as it was a handwritten slip on the back of an order slip. I ordered apple crumble with custard, which arrived upturned (crumble down) and had been scattered with cake decorating sprinkles akin to something a five year-old would like. When I retired through to the bar, I found the hotel proprietors and staff to be literally using the lounge bar like their own lounge; a young child ran around noisily in bare feet, running over furniture and being really inconveniencing for anyone who had been working all day. There was little to no concern for the relaxation and peace of any guests. After spotting the open cereal boxes, I was concerned and uncertain about what to do for breakfast. The decision came however when I was awake throughout large parts of the night with horrible reflux and heartburn from my dinner that night; there was ABSOLUTELY NO WAY I was staying for breakfast. I checked out early in the morning and the male proprietor who chec

Had 4 nights at the Royal Hotel with my husband and 2 dogs. Everything was lovely and we were made to feel very welcome. It’s a typical Scottish hotel a little tired in places but very clean and run very efficiently and all the staff were friendly and extremely efficient. We ate in the hotel and our compliments to the chef the food was good honest food, plenty of it and delicious. We would have no hesitation in recommending to friends and would definitely stay again. It was great to stay in a hotel that says they are dog friendly and they are, we were not made to feel uncomfortable at all.

Staff didn't know what they were doing, the place smelt like a bad chip shop from the moment you walked in and the smell radiated to the top floor. The bed was really uncomfortable. the window was rotten and the window was covered in bird poo. I woke up smelling like chips as were all on my clothes. The bathroom ceiling was rotten and peeling. I was due to stay 2 nights but ended up checking out and going elsewhere after the first night. The hotel refused to discuss compensation or refund due to the honest review left on ***********.... such bad service

The rooms, halls, building, bathrooms, etc. look like they last saw work sometime in the 60's. I'm sure it was nice then, but that was some time ago. Almost everything seemed worn and tired HOWEVER... It was clean! And all the staff we interacted with were either very nice and helpful or EXCEPTIONALLY nice and helpful. It seemed like they were doing the best the could with what they had. Bottom line is - don't go here if you're on a "special trip" as it would likely be a disappoin**ent. but as a place to sleep and shower while doing other activities it was acceptable. Very short walk to the train station worked for us too.