BEST WESTERN Premier Heronston Hotel & Spa

The room was clean and comfortable enough, with a dog bed and bowls ready for our dog. We’d told the hotel about him when booking and were given a dog-friendly room, though the view was grim, straight onto a car park and what looked like containers for discarded hotel items. The trouble started when we tried to have dinner. We were told dogs couldn’t go into the restaurant, which is fair enough, so during the busy Six Nations weekend we ate in the foyer bar instead. The bar manager brought our food and left without checking if we needed anything. We still needed basics like salt and ketchup. My burger was badly overcooked and smaller than its bun. My partner’s vegan wellington came as a flat piece of pastry, and the tenderstem broccoli listed with it wasn’t there. We’d been sold breakfast at check-in without anyone explaining that we couldn’t eat in the restaurant with our dog. After the dinner experience, we decided we’d rather skip breakfast if it meant eating in the foyer again, so I asked for the prepaid £24 back. The check-in staff member said it was non-refundable, and the manager said the same. I explained that we’d declared the dog and that the problem was not the policy, but being sold breakfast without the restriction being made clear. The conversation became needlessly argumentative. The refund was finally processed after a lot of back and forth and when I said I’d formally escalate it. Even then, the manager focused on repeating the dog policy rather than the poor communication. The stay wasn’t relaxing. The food was poor and inaccurately described, some staff seemed disengaged, and management handled a straightforward issue defensively. The room was clean and dog-friendly, but the outlook was disappointing. I wouldn’t stay here again or recommend it.