Very reasonable value here, but not quite what we were looking for at a B&B.
We stay at B&Bs as we quite like the personal touch of staying at someone's home, but that wasn't the case here. There is a manager on site up until 8pm, then she leaves the premise, so the whole place is just guests after that time. A little bit strange and a bit concerning as if there is an emergency you are directed to a mobile phone number.
Our room was pretty good, but there were a some points they could improve on. First was the very creaky floor boards, and the second was that the door to our room (#3) only could be shut by locking it. This didn't work so well as our room had a shared bathroom, so every time you left the room, the door would swing partly open.
Noise is also a bit of an issue, as you can hear whenever someone uses the bathroom, and sound insulation from other rooms is not great either, with conversations able to be heard.
Breakfasts were good, apparently the only B&B to offer a hot breakfast in Banff. Somewhat monotonous as the theme was an egg based breakfast each day. We had Omelette, then poached egg, then scrambled egg then omelette again on the 4th day. But there were plenty of other options with good muesli, and cereals and toasts.
Strangely in the middle of summer the heating was left on, so when you came in it was really hot inside the house and it got very hot in the middle of the night.
Staff were pleasant enough, but not that interested in how your stay was going.
Bannf is fantastic, and the information centre is really helpful.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
15 September 2011
Thank you so much for your detailed review! We really appreciate guests taking the time after staying with us to let others know how their stay was. We’d like to let you know we took your comments seriously and are exploring ways to make guest stays even better! We would like to clarify that ALL staff at the B & B live on the premises full-time. We do maintain hours to serve our guests between 8am-noon and again from 4pm-8pm (as is standard for most B&B’s) but in an emergency if our manager has gone to town for any reason or is in her private suite, there is a cell phone number left for guests outside of those hours.
We wish the floors weren’t as creaky but unfortunately that is just one of the things that come with old character houses. Our B&B is nearly 100 years old and while we do periodic renovations to maintain the building, but re-doing the floors would be extremely costly and invasive. We do ask that guests take care after 9pm to keep the noise to a minimum so not to disturb other guests. As you can see 2 reviews above yours, we are employing new strategies to deal with noise carrying in the house.
As for your door, we do apologize that the only way to keep it closed is to lock it. We are aware of this, however, the door and doorknob on that room are original to the house from 1918 and we don’t have the heart to replace it with a modern one without all the character :)
Our management is looking into the heating issue. It is a fine balance as the summer in the mountains means hot days and cold nights. We try to keep it at a level to please everyone. We encourage guests to let the staff know if they have concerns like this so that we can address it at the time and ensure your stay is comfortable!
Thank you again for all your feedback and we hope to see you again!
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC