As a surprise for my birthday we stayed at this hotel on the 21/3/07 and what a surprise the whole experience was superb.If you are looking for beautiful country house hotel look no further. The gardens are exceptional, the bar and reception are both warm and inviting, the log fires may have somthing to do with it. We stayed in room number 5 with views to both the front and also over looking the gardens. The food was excellent and the menu was quite outstanding. Possibly the best thing about this hotel is the staff all were very helpful, friendly, nothing was too much trouble, all were always smiling especially the new manager Liz very professional. All in all a fantastic experience and I would recomend anyone to try it

I booked this hotel a one night stay with my partner and would have paid £110 for bed and breakfast for a standard double. Having looked at the website I was happy to pay that amount as it looked a quiet hotel with comfortable rooms. Unfortunately the pictures on the website are misleading. The hotel grounds and reception area/sitting room are great; our room however was a massive disappointment. Very basic, very dated, 1960s style bathroom! We went back to reception and explained that it wasn't quite what we were looking for and they were good enough to offer us the family suite for the same price, but
it wasn't particularly special, low ceilings, very hot as it caught the sun all day and the bathroom wasn't great. We weren't charged for
our booking and left without spending the night. The staff couldn't have been nicer but if you're looking for something a bit special this isn't the place.

We have just returned from a week in Scotland, where we had chosen as our base the Creebridge Hotel.

From the moment we arrived the satff were so courteous and attentive, which helped us tremendously, as we have 2 small children. Indeed nothing seemed to be a problem to them.
Unsure of where to go, we settled in for our first night in front of a glorious fire in the reception area, where our children were provided with board games to play, and we were served drinks and snacks from the bar.
Although tired we decided to dine, and were absolutely delighted with the food, the menu was superb, I was able to have steak, which was cooked to perfection, and my wife had fresh Scottish Lobster, locally caught. The children whilst not so adventurous were well fed.
I must mention our room, we stayed in the Creeview, a delightful apartment, 2 interconnected rooms with Bathroom & Toilet, the children loved "being independant" -although only yards away.
Breakfast in the morning was out of this world, smoked Salmon for no extra cost, and a Scottish hotel actually serving Haggis & Black Pudding.
We had a wondrous week, the staff pointing out places to visit we had never heard of, like Logans fish Pool, perfect for young & old.
It must rate as the best hotel we have ever stayed at, and we have already booked to go back later this year, I would recommend it to anyone.

I could write a review for this Hotel but maybe you would understand our experience there better if I copy an e-mail I sent to them on our return home, here goes:

To whom it may concern

We stayed at your hotel on Friday the 23rd February for one night although it was supposed to be for three nights, let me explain why we cut our stay with you short…

When we arrived at your hotel, outside it was cold and quite miserable and we were looking forward to the welcoming warmth of the hotel, this hope was dashed completely the second we opened the front door, no nice gust of warm air just the same chill as was on the outside. However the reception area had a lovely roaring fire and that restored our spirits somewhat. On checking in we were advised that there was a function that night and we could have dinner before 7pm or after 8:15pm, an early dinner suited us so that wasn’t a problem. The man at reception was polite and friendly, usually a good sign.

We got our bags from the car and made our way to our room (number 8) this entailed coping with quite a few stairs and doors which isn’t in itself a problem as we are in no way physically incapacitated. However as the building is old, the floors have a slope to them which is manageable when one gets the hang of it but someone might have mentioned the spongy section of floor immediately at the bottom of the stairs just before our room, it caught us out at least twice and had we been at all infirm could have led to a lawsuit. We also noticed that there was a pervading chill throughout the stair and corridor sections and hoped fervently that the room at least would be welcoming. Sadly the room was just the same. We know that the windows are original and not double glazed which may be attractive from the outside but on retaining this feature, surely in the winter months at least, adequate heating for your guests comfort should be provided.

The room itself was spacious enough and the décor not bad but the bathroom was at best adequate. The cleaning left a bit to be desired with hairs at the back of the toilet seat and a grubby rubber mat for the bath, not much dusting had been done either, lamp bases, etc. We did not feel confident enough with the hygiene of the room to go barefoot.

We turned the heating as high as possible and removed the towels from the rail in the bathroom but to be honest this made little to no difference. We unpacked and readied ourselves for dinner.

We went down for dinner at 6:30 and only then were we told that we would be eating in the brasserie that night owing to the function, again the member of staff we spoke to was pleasant, professional and friendly. We ordered drinks and looked at the menu, not what we expected at all. We expected fine dining as the restaurant menu on-line obviously is and this menu certainly was not. However we consoled ourselves with the fact that it would be better tomorrow as we would be in the restaurant proper. We made our choices which were limited as we are vegetarian but at least we did have a few options. The brasserie is a pleasant enough place but again it wasn’t the beautiful looking restaurant we had seen on-line

The starters were fine, the white onion soup was quite delicious the main courses were ok but could be improved upon. We had penné arrabiata which had a delicious piquant sauce but the pasta was overcooked and a goat cheese tart that seemed to have been made with as little goat cheese as possible. We mentioned the tart to a member of staff and the criticism was accepted graciously and courteously, it did taste fine if not very cheesy. The accompanying vegetables were a mixed bag; the broccoli was overcooked and had a taste most associated with vegetables not cooked to order but mass done then reheated, the cauliflower had the same taste. The boiled potatoes were perfect the carrots were ok. We had dessert which we both enjoyed then ordered coffee, I didn’t drink mine, it was bitter and my husband said it had been filtered and standing on the hotplate since we entered the brasserie which would explain it.

After our meal we went back to the reception area and again enjoyed the roaring fire which a member of staff kindly stoked for us. We asked to have a look at the restaurant menu, anticipating the next nights dinner, only then were we informed very politely that there was no such thing at this time of year as it wasn’t viable and the brasserie menu was an amalgamation of both to try and please everyone. Surely it would have been prudent to tell us this when we booked the accommodation instead of allowing us to think we would be “fine dining” for the duration of our stay? Maybe we would have gone ahead and booked anyway but it would have been good to have had the choice. Another puff of wind knocked from our sails.

Around 9pm we decided to retire for the evening as the noise from the function guests was becoming quite noticeable. The room was still chilly so we quickly went to bed and put the television on which seemed to be more of an ornament than a television as the quality of picture was bad on every channel and the signal so low that teletext refused to load properly. Just before 10pm from directly beneath our room there was a sound that we really didn’t want or expect to be hearing, a “band” warming up. When the “music” started I called reception to ask when it would end and was told around midnight. I explained that we hadn’t been told about the function when we booked and the member of staff was apologetic and called up our file and said she was sorry but we should have been informed as the function had been booked for quite a while and, this was the piece de resistance, there was another function the next night! She offered to move us to another room, I declined as we were already organised and in bed for the night.

My husband and I discussed our options and decided we would check out in the morning. Meantime we had to listen to excruciating “music” for the next couple of hours, hearing every note and lyric, we could write the playlist we could hear everything so clearly.

Sleep was elusive even after the function was over as the door to the room was so ill-fitting that it allowed light to stream in from the hallway. We woke at 5:50 to the sound of a thrush singing and decided just to get up and get packed as it was impossible to get back to sleep.

We checked out around 8:20am opting not to have breakfast as we didn’t want anything else to go wrong. The woman at reception noticed that we were checking out early, we explained that we hadn’t been told about the function and, once again, the staff rose to the occasion and she was very apologetic but this didn’t help save our ruined weekend.

This long weekend was supposed to be a special treat for my husband’s birthday. We used to visit Newton Stewart two or three times a year but owing to working away from home hadn’t been for a long time. This was going to be a trip down memory lane for us and we had hoped that the Creebridge House Hotel would become a regular place for to visit. As it turned out it was, without doubt, the worst experience we have had at an hotel, so much so that we didn’t have the heart or inclination to look for somewhere else to stay and arrived home less than a day after we left. We had been looking forward to this break and had rejected other hotels who had replied positively to enquiries that we made (only after your hotel didn’t respond for a few days) in favour of yours which only makes matters worse

In summary, the staff at the Creebridge is exemplary being both courteous and friendly but care should be taken to inform potential guests before they make a reservation of any variations from the norm that there may be during their proposed stay. We certainly will not be back to the Creebridge Hotel and will make a point of telling our friends and family not to try it either.


So far the hotel hasn't responded to my complaint which I sent 3 days ago but it did take 6 days for them to respond to my original booking enquiry so we'll see.......