Macdonald Aviemore Woodland Lodges

The lodges could be really nice, unfortunately they are pretty tired. With the exception of the kitchen the rooms are all a decent size. The kitchen is small and does not have a cooker or washing machine. No need really for a washing machine but if you are going to be much more than a short break it would be useful. Bedrooms all have en-suites which are adequate. We were in a three bedroom and one room had a bath. Furniture in the lounge just needs to be updated and some decorating to freshen the place up would be good. Carpets are threadbare on the stairs and also need renewing. Change overs could do with a brush being applied to the veranda outside, which does not happen as it was clearly not done when we visited the lodge. The good points are that it’s nice to be in the wood. The location is good with only a short walk to the centre of Aviemore and lots of places to visit and walks that are very close by. We wanted a change of towels, phoned up reception and was told it would be passed on to housekeeping. Nothing arrived so we phoned again and this time was told we could only have fresh towels after four days. A bit long to wait, but after a conversation we finally got fresh towels on out third day. So good they reacted to our request.

The worst part is that they gave us a room that smelled horribly of cigarettes. We have two little kids. For a 4-star family accommodation I think that’s pretty bad. I mentioned it at check out and the person didn’t even blink. Apologized and moved on. I have to imagine they get this sort of thing often. The location is very good for access to outdoors activity. The pool and soft play ideal for a family with small kids. Everything else is a bit sad, because it’s not very well taken care of. Furniture, faucets, and walls need up keeping and cleaning. Customer service too. The restaurant very over priced even for a touristy place. Unless you’re going to heavily use soft play and pool, I would not recommend it. There’s gotta be better options.

I really want this place to be better it’s so well positioned but mainly it’s unloved and poorly managed. The good we ate in the restraunt in the highlands hotel which was excellent, the welcome at check in was great, the lodges are spacious. The bad lights in the street up to the lodges were mainly out replaced midway through our stay, pitch dark walk back from the main hotels and pool, lights at the lodge were out replaced next day, there was a hole in the wall of our lodge and in one of the chairs. The games room wasn’t open at the pool on requesting it to be opened the response was we only open It during the Scottish school holidays or weekends despite us being their during English school holiday time with English friends accompanying us with their kids at our recommendation an absolute embarrassment for Scotland. it was open later following a discussion with management, pool opening hours were limited which was fine but when it was open 80% of the space as taken up for lessons which they certainly didn’t need appreciate there needs to be a balance but it needs better managed the young pool attendants just seemed to do whatever the swimming lessons team asked for, the slide was also switched off during lessons as the swimming lessons complained it was too noisy absolute nonsense, breakfast was good but for the first two days they created unnecessary congestion by sitting out empty warming trays every morning taking up space for no reason frustrations guests how all opened up empty trays, instead of spreading out the food they did have which they eventually clicked to do after raising it to management it’s basic stuff. Hopefully they get a management team who put in more effort but the reality is likely with there location they’ll continue the mediocre maintenance and I’ll probably stay again because if you want to stay somewhere in Aviemore for kids with a pool it’s your only option. Such a shame such potential.