Ayre Hotel & Ayre Apartments

Don’t be put off by hotel front. This hotel met all our needs, clean comfortable, good food and friendly staff. Provided packed lunches because we would miss breakfast. Would use again……………………………………..:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::……….

Monik, is unique what a cocktail specialist, never ever have I had such service and cocktails made with nothing but passion, if you try his cocktails you will be disappointed anywhere else in the world, said he who was going to bed four cocktails earlier, arnjun, what a magnificent human being!

Monik is the man you need for your drinks! Absolutely amazing at cocktails and drinks! Puts his whole heart and soul into every drink! Even preps many of his drinks days before to be able to give the best possible service to his customers. Brilliant full stop. As for the hotel as whole it’s absolutely the place to stay on Orkney! Great people, great service and great location. 👌🏼

Clean. Seemed a bit poorly organized . Signs falling down (looked for room a few times until I noticed the sign on the floor) and upkeep of common areas not the best. The room was fine. We stayed in a twin / full "family" room. A bit of a tight fit for 3 . Staff was kind and accommodating. This was the definition of "ok". Really not at all terrible and far from fabulous. Very nice location on the docks (although my view was an alleyway) easy to get to city center with restaurants etc. The onsite restaurant was B quality- better than average.

Fabulous cosy stay, in a one bedroomed apartment. The apartment was well equipped with everything we needed, spotlessly clean and a kind assistant came every day to replace towels if needed and tidy for us. The breakfast was lovely, well organised dining room, and very tasty food. I liked the easy book in, can’t fault the hotel at all. We would definitely stay here again.

This hotel seems to lack an entrance. There is a door which leads into the restaurant, but it is clearly not a reception. Having eventually found the reception down a side alley one is faced with a computer screen in order to check in. This is something I would have expected in a budget city centre hotel but certainly not in a hotel of the standard. Hopefully, improvements will have been made since I last visited.

Our family meal in the restaurant for 18 family members- food was beautiful. Unfortunately the service was non existent. Everything felt like an inconvenience and overall it made us all feel very uncomfortable. The environment was beautiful and the food was lovely but the staff were unbearable, unattentive and flustered.

Having spent a wonderful fortnight in Edinburgh and Orkney staying in multiple hotels, all of which were delightful, our final couple of nights were spent in The Ayre Hotel, which we had prebooked. We booked in easily and the room itself was fine, a view over the bay, clean and comfortable. Had we left it like that, this review would have been 5 stars, as there would have been no complaint. However, we booked for dinner on the second night. When we arrived at the restaurant there was a young person on the desk, the manager later confirmed that she was new. She was very nice although clearly flustered. She couldn't find our name on the list, she went off to try and resolve, returned with another, again this has been confirmed, experienced member of staff who could not have been more unpleasant. This person was rude and unkind to the new staff member and was discourteous to us. We, incidentally, had stood there for some time, saying nothing, as clearly the new person was doing her best. We got the impression that the experienced staff member was thoroughly put out at the interruption to her routine and found the new staff member, and us, an inconvenience. However, we were eventually sat down at a table. We were left with the new person to serve us, the experienced one giving no support to her whatsoever. The experienced one did stomp over however, solely to tell us that the error had been the person booking us in originally (ironically the hotel manager sat on the front desk) and not her. We had not asked for any further comment, she did this of her own accord to make a point. We felt most uncomfortable and advised her that it is best to keep internal issues between themselves and not display for the paying guests. We had ordered nothing so far, so elected to leave the restaurant, and walked into the town to try and find somewhere else to eat, even though we were staying at The Ayre Hotel. Before leaving the hotel to find a meal, we stopped and spoke to the manager sat on reception, explained what has happened, and he said he would look into it and come back to us. He made no effort to resolve the matter there and then, and try to encourage us to stay for a meal. Quite the contrary, he was quite happy to have two guests staying in the hotel walk out, clearly upset. We heard nothing from him that night. We sent an email before we checked out the next morning, in the hope he may make the effort to contact us before we left. He didn't. We came home from holiday, we telephoned several times and left messages for him, and sent multiple emails. He ignored us for weeks, eventually a generic email response came which, as could be seen from the change of font in the email, was a poorly cut and pasted effort, copied no doubt from another complaint email he has dealt with. We contacted his superior, based at the management company. His response was curt, did not attempt to respond to any of the issues, said it was dealt with and the matter was closed

Family meal for 18 of us, mix of adults & children. Isla in restaurant was superb, nothing was too much trouble. Food was delicious, superb choice, large portions, everyone happy. Thank you so much for making our family gathering special.