Fairmont St Andrews

We visited for Sunday brunch with 32 family and friends to celebrate a family birthday. Communication beforehand with Ciprian and James was excellent and every request was handled professionally and with ease. Every member of our group spoke highly of the service provided and quality of the food served. Roast beef was amazing!! Good choice of drinks included with brunch. Thank you and look forward to returning

Haven't been for a few years and service has improved since our last visit. The ratio of staff to residents is as good as any 5 star and we personally found everyone very attentive from the concierge to all the waiting staff and management, as you would expect at 5 star. The spa provided an excellent service and we ate in the hotel on Saturday where our food was good and Naomi our server and the manager provided excellent service. Breakfast very tasty and did not disappoint. It was busy and would benefit from support for the person making eggs to keep the cooked food topped up as it runs short and when he goes to refill, the egg station is empty. People complain about bar prices, it's on par with other 5 star hotels and city prices.

We have stayed many times at the Fairmount and one of the things we particularly enjoy is the breakfast - however on this stay, the breakfast was very poor. We arrived at 10am (service stops at 10.30am) - and found the following: no muesli was available, the cheeses and cold meats need to be replenished, the breads/croissants/pastries were hard. The area for the cooked items has been moved to the side and all hot food was squished into a smaller serving area. Plates for the hot food were stone cold, only sausages, black pudding and mushrooms were available. No bacon, tomatoes, beans, eggs of any sort (fried/scrambled were available) and other guests informed me they were waiting for the chef to arrive at the station as he had to cook the eggs/ omelette to order. I waited in a queue for around 5 mins but decided to abandon the wait as the sausages and mushroom I had collected were sitting on my cold plate getting colder. Eventually after another 10 minutes my husband spotted the arrival of the chef with bacon and scrambled eggs - however I was nearly finished eating my sausages and muhrooms, so rather late. The breakfast at the Fairmont during previous visits has been really very good but this experience was shockingly bad - to the extent I would not return here unless this issue is addressed. I have looked at other reviews and see this is a problem often highlighted in reviews in recent weeks/months. Other 5 star hotels in St Andrews are currently offering bed and breakfast at a cheaper rate, and from experience I know are doing a marvellous job with their breakfasts. Breakfast service should be fully maintained with foods replenished until the end of service at 10.30 am. We stayed one night with our dog and had a super room on the ground floor. We were made very welcome and the staff were attentive bringing dog bed, treats, tennis ball and food/drink bowls. The room was large, clean and comfortable and a bonus was it was quite near the exit so handy with the dog. The only thing we were unhappy about was the breakfast - but it is enough to put us off. The fact that this issue has been highlighted to the hotel management via reviews and does not seem to have been addressed is a real shame. My suggestions to management - it is time to take action on the negative feedback regarding the breakfasts. Have more chefs available, ensure all stations, particularly the hot food station, are manned at all times. Move the hot food back to the centre of the buffet area, ensure hot clean plates available for guests to put their food on, replenish food at a faster rate.

We haven't been to Fairmont St Andrews for a good few years. Sad to see things aren't really 5* any more. Arrived about 3.15pm, slightly early, room wasn't ready so popped over to Zephyr bar. Pretty expensive. 22£ for 175ml of wine and a pint of beer. Less seating than I remember, no atmosphere. Room ready, looks good initially. Housekeeping definitely gone downhill. Very dusty. Windows dirty. Duvet lumpy. Sink kept filling with water, removed plug, oh dear, disgusting, black mould, orange gunk. Loose tiles in the bathroom which made terrible noise when walking over them. Happy to see Le Labour Rose 31 is still being used. But now big pump bottles instead of little individual bottles. Mini bar prices extortionate. Quite ridiculous really. So didn't use anything. Kittocks Den, better atmosphere, but again extortionate. Bed very comfortable as always. Good powerful shower. Excellent. My biggest shock was breakfast. Gone is the big circular counter filled with multiple choices of hot food, with lift up lids, to help yourself to. But now a few, open dishes, under heat lamps. Reminded me of a premier inn style breakfast. However, the food was as delicious as I remember, only the tattie scones were a little hard, and tomatoes were only warm. Fruit juice and latte were lovely. 12pm check out is fantastic, but 4pm check in, I feel, is slightly late. We mentioned using the 6pm shuttle bus at check in. We weren't told we needed to book. Turned up at 5.45pm to be told it was fully booked. Ended up having to pay over 10£ for a taxi. Queue to checkout was busy, so just popped my key in the express checkout box, otherwise I'd have raised my concerns with the reception staff.

An Xmas present voucher for my wife from Myhotelbreak with an ‘Upgrade to a Fairmont View Room’ which turned out to be a view of the car park. Shower gel bottles in the room and ladies showers were empty, no bags for wet swimming costumes added to the irritation. Our server had a body odour issue, food was average but the cheese board was horrible. Asked for a balcony table to be told these were all booked. There was always at least 1 table available during the 2 hour meal. Long queue for breakfast and the Latte wasn’t even warm. Raised these issues with the Hotel to be offered an upgrade and a free bottle of Prosecco. What makes them think I would be happy to spend another £420 for a free bottle of £10 Prosecco. The arrogance!