Macdonald Highlands Hotel

Recently returned from my trip to the Macdonald resort in Aviemore. I booked (2 rooms) to stay in the Morlich hotel as I had previously stayed in the Highlands hotel.One of the reasons we stay at the Macdonald resort is the location and the restaurant options.However on arrival it appeared our booking was swapped to the Highlands hotel (sigh!) and Giovanni's restaurant was closed for the duration of our stay. :(Its safe to say I was not impressed.The Highlands Hotel is still in urgent need of TLC, corridors are smelly, tatty and dirty (walls and doors are marked, carpets stained). In our room the bathrooms are dirty and dated, missingand dirty grouting, odd spec of mold and the shower leaks.The rooms could do with better lighting as the rooms are quite dark (at the rear of the hotel).The Pool's jacuzzi is broken. (It was a few months ago when we stayed also)Aspects restaurant is over priced and has minimal choice for vegetarians.Staff are polite, bar man miserable.

Stayed here on the night of the 9th August 2023. Before anything I have to say that the guy that welcomed us at the desk was lovely. Really helpful profesional and nice. Apart from that everything else was terrible. The buildings in the resort look like a run down inner city shopping precinct. Don’t let the photos fool you! Any photo taken by a drone in the gorgeous Scottish highlands looks good! The hallway to our room was dirty, unpainted wooden fire doors, scuffed walls dirty carpet. The rooms are in need of a refurbishment (I would say travel lodge standards but my recent experience with travel lodge type hotels has been very good). Bathroom had a bashed door and broken fixtures. There was an adjoining door to another room in our room and it was like sharing with another couple as the walls and doors were paper thin. The breakfast was a disaster. The poor waitresses and cooks seemed to be on the verge of tears. The food was messy on the self-service bar. They ran out of several things including fruit and museli. The carpet in the restaurant was filthy and the floor at the breakfast bar was sticky. We asked to sit outside as it was a nice morning but we were told that only people with dogs that could sit out and although some people without dogs had gone out they weren’t allowing anyone else (?!). We didn’t use any of the hotel facilities so can’t comment on them….really just wanted to leave.

In desperate need of a minor refurbishment.Most walls are marked, carpets contain stains, corridors are smelly, room doors are loud and slam shut, bathrooms dated and tired.The pool area was dirty and the pool was cold.The Aspects restaurant is very over priced and the food quality is average. Breakfast is like being in a school canteen, food dry and of poor quality.Italian restaurant is perfect.Staff are polite.Location perfect.

Terrible hotel. Stayed during the Harley rally this year. Nobody attended to room over the three nights, even after complaining. Had to goto reception to get toilet rolls / towels etc. Breakfast average but didn’t offer vegetarian options and poor for dairy free. Reception advised when checking out that someone would contact me within two days, still waiting. Even wrote a note to McDonalds complaints but again they didn’t contact me. Really poor considering this is meant to be there best hotel at Aviemore and it cost me nearly £600 for the room for three nights.

The walls are so think that you can hear every word your neighbours say and get a great knowledge of their bathroom habits. Also, as they are probably leaving on a coach tour at 06:30AM you will wake up with them at 05:30AM. You will also hear their full itinerary for the day.It's clear that there has been no maintenance in the last 10 years, everything is old, sticky and smells bad. See the entrance to the hotel in the photos for just one example of this...The extractor fan in the bathrooms are too weak to prevent humidity from the shower from setting off the fire alarm in the room. This resulted in getting a nice wake up call at 7AM one morning when the hotel fire alarm went off (but was then reset suspiciously quickly, feel like it probably goes off frequently). Luckily there is a sticker reminding you to close the bathroom door when showering to prevent this! But there is still very poor ventilation which results in mould on the bathroom ceiling as well as paint flaking off all the wooden surfaces within the bathroom.However you'll probably keep the bathroom door shut all the time as the toilet is continuously filling so is always making a sound like a water feature.In summary, this hotel feels trapped in a bygone era, wearied by the weight of years and lack of care. DO NOT STAY HERE UNTIL IT HAS BEEN RENOVATED.

Good hotel, which is part of Mcdonald's Aviemore resort. Nice rooms if a touch small, excellent breakfast, attentive staff. Negatives, big and sprawling, slightly worn in places, and a touch expensive for what it is.

Surprised with a last minute weekend away. Dog friendly which was a bonus. Room and bathroom was spacious. Decor was dated but didn't dampen our stay. Tasty breakfast buffet with plenty of options. We all enjoyed the swimming pool. Brilliant location, easy walking distance to the hills and all the bars and restaurants in town. Would return again

I am always quite picky when it comes to staying somewhere new but the MacDonald Aviemore resort makes a great spot if you're in the area for a few days. It is quite costly but I understand with it being summer and a popular tourist location how it can be that price.We had a room overlooking the mountains and they also offered to put a bottle of Prosecco in the room as it was our anniversary, but then on arrival I had to pay for it even though they offered it over the telephone, so that was a downside before I even got in the room. On first glance we found the room to be quite small for two people, not ideal if you were here for more than one night, the shower was also quite poor with the water pressure non existant and pulsated on occasion in the morning.Our room was clean and tidy but did look a bit dated with the furniture being scratched and the walls having slight marks, one thing I did notice was the corridors and lobbies being quite dull and well used with a sewer smell making first impressions not very good.Breakfast was good, large selection with unlimited tea/coffee and fruit juice. It is great that they include it in the room price rather than having to pay more.They have lots to offer onsite such as a cinema, shopping complex, outdoor activities and a leisure centre which unfortunately closes early at 6pm so no evening swims are available which was a bit disappointing as we were out most the day enjoying the Cairngorms.All in all our stay was okay with a few slight issues but this is to be expected from an old complex, hopefully some refurbishment is needed to bring it up to the modern day and with the prices they charge per night I'm sure they can!

It was nice enough, I was there on business so not really in a holiday frame of mind. Food was nice. Views spectacular.