Hotels near Robert Burns Centre, Dumfries

Ten years ago, we stayed at the Glenlossie and it was one of the best B&Bs we've ever experienced in Scotland. I gave it top marks on Trip Advisor and that's a rarity! The owners were friendly, the breakfast was superb and the place had a professional and business-like air about it. So, thinking we'd head to D&G for a few days recently we thought to book again. In the interim the place has been taken over by the larger Caledonian Hotel next door and is now effectively an annexe. It goes without saying that the former ambience of the establishment is dead and gone. There was litter in the car park and old chairs and junk in the passage outside our ground floor bedroom window which we couldn't open for long because of the cigarette smoke emanating from who knows who although the constant coughing through the thin wall would suggest our neighbour was the culprit. The bathroom ceiling was peeling, probably due to the lack of an extractor and the sink lacked a plug. We bought one in a shop. To be fair, the room was attended to every day and coffee/tea/soap etc replenished (not the plug). You get the feeling no one is around to ”manage” the place. The front door is always on the snib. Mail lay about the porch uncollected. Breakfasts are now served at the big house and that's it. The buffet is average and the porridge wouldn't win an Oscar nomination any longer. It's a shame as the young East European lassies in charge are doing their best. I know covid has hit the hotel trade hard. Staff shortages are a common feature now and it's a wonder that places like this can stay open at all. in the Caledonian's case the funeral trade keeps them going, I gather. Good luck to them. But I think the use of the name Glenlossie for the ghostly building next door is a bit of a nonsense and quite sad in the circumstances.