Q & C Policy

QUERIES AND COMPLAINTS HANDLING POLICY

As a very busy hotel, we occasionally have queries at Balbirnie House.
And as a hotel with a brigade focussed on always delivering our absolute best services, and our true warmth of welcome of Scotland hospitality, it is a rare circumstance indeed however, to receive a complaint, let alone a legitimate complaint.

We are all human, mistakes can sometimes happen, despite all best endeavours.

This is our in-house policy. If ever required there are three stages that we will apply, in our endeavours to wholeheartedly redeem your perspective. We will always try to resolve any legitimate complaint promptly, professionally, and with empathy.
1. Should any guest have a query or complaint, please do speak to the nearest member of our hotel brigade. We will always endeavour to immediately rectify anything that is logical or possible. We will very carefully listen to what you have to say, and do our absolute best to resolve any issue.

If we have made any mistake, our entire policy is totally straightforward:
WE WILL OFFER TO EITHER REPEAT, OR REFUND. We will also apologise, and commit to doing better next time around.(PLEASE NOTE THAT IF YOUR COMPLAINT IS IN RELATION TO ANY EXPIRED GIFT VOUCHERS, – WHEN A VOUCHER HAS EXPIRED, THE VOUCHER HAS INDEED EXPIRED. We will not respond any further regarding expired vouchers.)

Have we fully resolved your issue? We hope so. If you are in any way still unhappy …

For any other queries or complaints:
2. Should you still not be entirely satisfied and happy, please email your query or complaint information to [email protected] marked FAO Senior Manager. In turn we will assign the resources and time of a senior member of our management team, to fully review and investigate, thereby delivering a problem assessment, and a solution offering. Investigation may extend to interviews with members of our hotel brigade, taking and retaining statement of facts, reviewing lapel CCTV, and internal / external CCTV. Please note that there may be a delay of a few days or more, so as to work with pre-conceived staffing rotas. We will revert back to you via email at our earliest possible convenience. As per previous, if we have failed to previously offer to repeat, or refund, we shall offer our apologies and now do so. Please note however, if it is concluded that we have actually done nothing wrong, we will clarify this as well.

If following the input from a Senior Manager:
3. Should you still not be entirely satisfied and happy, please email your query or complaint information to [email protected] marked FAO Balbirnie House Operations Manager. In turn we will assign the resources and time of our company Operations Manager to once again fully review and investigate. Investigation may once again extend to interviews with members of our hotel brigade, taking and retaining statement of facts, reviewing lapel CCTV, and internal / external CCTV. Please note that there may be a delay of a few days or more, so as to work with pre-conceived staffing rotas. We will revert back to you via email at our earliest possible convenience. As per previous, if we have failed to previously offer to repeat, or refund, we shall offer our apologies and now do so. Please note however, if it is concluded that we have actually done nothing wrong, we will clarify this as well. Please note that it is categorically the case, that any decision taken by our company Operations Manager, is binding and final.

ONLINE REVIEWS?

As is the case across the span of the Scotland hospitality sector, all hotels have the legal rights to inform Police Scotland under the Defamation & Malicious Publications (Scotland) Act 2021, of any online reviews which are maliciously fabricated and placed into the public domain with the purpose of deceiving the general public. Thankfully thus far this is not something we have ever needed to action!
Amongst thousands of reviews and comments, over the many years we have certainly seen some strange reviews from individuals who we know, have never even actually visited the premises, well what a strange world we sometimes live in.

Tripadvisor for example can very obviously enable reviews which are factually incorrect, and if hospitality questions the reality of any such review, Tripadvisor response is to say simply that ‘this is subjective opinion’.
And to the contrary when considering review systems from individuals who we know have indeed actually visited Balbirnie House (eg as at 2025 our most recent 1150+ restaurant customer reviews, we have averaged 94.6% guest delight).
Similarly, Balbirnie’s incredible collection of eleven best-in-world hospitality awards via Haute Grandeur global hotel awards, have been directly driven by a percentage of ratings from our many guests, as opposed to a number of ratings.

Much of life of course, is always indeed subjective. Tom believes that the correct way to serve a gin and tonic is with a slice of lemon. Dick, well he thinks it should be a slice of lime. And as for Harry – it’s a slice of air-dried grapefruit, a sprig of fresh Rosemary, and a slice of lime! All three may be correct!
If you have visited Balbirnie House and are anything less than delighted, please do feel free to let us know, as above we will do everything possible to redeem your perspective, if we have made any errors or failed to deliver the standards to which we are routinely accustomed. Please be fully assured, that we highly value all guest feedback, and the feedback itself helps our evolution. We very kindly request that anyone please allows us a logical opportunity to redeem perspective, prior to leaving any negative online review.

And should you wish to simply go ahead and leave a lovely review, thereby happiness for one and all, then with all modern convenience to hand, here is a QR code to scan, to take you straight to the many wonders of Tripadvisor.