Norton House, Edinburgh

Norton House, Edinburgh, is a picturesque location, long way away from city, plush, and very clean. Most staff are exceptionally friendly and can't do enough for you. I treated my wife to an overnight stay here for Christmas 2008. We arrived and bands were playing, children were running around, and just felt exactly like Christmas - A fabulous atmosphere. The executive room was a real surprise with heated flooring and a small TV in the bathroom. Shower was very luxurious also. Gym / Spa area also very impressive and warm. What let the experience down was the evening meal (Christmas dinner). We were asked to dine at 7pm, so got there for 6.30pm to have a drink at the bar. 6.30pm soon became 7.30pm and we got very hungry so I asked the bar tender what was happening. To my horror, he explained there wasn't enough demand so it was cancelled. He went on to apologise for us not being informed and led us through to the dining area where we could choose anything from the A La Carte menu (starter, main course and desert). So there were the 2 of us sitting in there alone, no decorations, party hats, not even a cracker. The food was to a very high standard but felt like an average Saturday night rather than Christmas day. The bar tender offered us a "few free drinks" later on, so I asked him to scrub the bottle of wine from the bill, which he did - A small price to pay for ruining our Christmas evening which we paid a lot of money for. It was an early night and we retired to bed around 10pm due to lack of atmosphere.The next morning I paid the bill and explained to the receptionist what had happened. She too was very apologetic and pleasant (so much so she gave us some party hats and crackers which was very nice of her). I told her I wanted to feed this back, and for her to pass my name and phone number to the duty manager, in the event he would like to call me to discuss or be interested in the complaint. Needless to say he didn't call, so I have arrived at the following conclusion and summary:Very nice hotel, with top quality food, selection of drinks, pleasant staff, latest technology in rooms, comfortable beds, and great scenery......but, it appears the managers clearly don't communicate with staff, nor do they listen to customers, and leave their staff in predicaments such as this. I will be back, but certainly not for a special occasion (just in case they mess it up again).

Well worth the visit. Everything was fantastic, the facilities were amazing, i left feeling out of this world. Unfortunately when I was leaving there was no-one there when i wanted to buy some products.