Review of Hillview Cottage 3*

This structure is located in a very quiet location on a trafficked road without sidewalks. The view from the guest rooms is amazing. The location would deserve a nice walk in the morning but this was unfortunately difficult and it turned out to be quite dangerous. Also, the structure is not really close to Stirling (about 20 minutes by car) although the address says it is in Stirling. It also cannot really be reached by public transportation (may seem obvious, but it's not for non-UK tourists who seldomly rent a car — luckily we did rent one :) ). The parking space is quite tight. Guest rooms are spacious and nicely furbished in a mixture of modern and antique. The one we used were en-suite. Rooms were not really well cleaned, especially in non-visible spots (loads of dust under the beds, dirt behind the toilet, etc). The whole structure is a bit "work-in-progress" and gives an impression of precariousness. This is often the case for B&B in the region, but the whole impression is that the structure would need some serious renewal as it does not meet Scottish standard (which are already lower than in other European countries). Although we were told there is free Wi-Fi we could not connect to it. The host (Jon) was friendly and available. He recommended us a good restaurant close to the hotel which turned out to be really good and not just the result of under-the-table agreements with restaurants (as it is the case in many otehr B&B). Breakfast was good and large-sized. The only negative aspect was the unflexibility for checking-in. Check-in time is 5 pm which is a difficult time to keep if you are travelling from a town to the next (other structures set 6 pm and accept later arrivals if pre-paid and informed by phone). We could not arrive before 6:30 pm as we had landed in Edinburgh the same afternoon and Jon did not seem to be too happy, but in the end it was ok. All in all, the structure is located in a very nice area and is acceptable in terms of how it is set up (although at the lower limit if compared with others). I assume this must be reflected in the price, although unfortunately if you book through agencies (as we did) you get the same price for all B&Bs (which in the end means less service for guests and higher profits for agencies). Level of service is good. We could consider coming back to this B&B as it is well-placed for travelling North from Edinburgh, but only if the drawbacks are really balanced by the price, Anyway, not as part of holiday packages offered by agencies.