Guest User
January 31, 2023
My brother, my sister and myself had booked a night in a different hostel nearby on our road trip around Scotland. However, I missed the fact that the other hostel's reception was closing at 23:00 (completely my fault) so when we arrived at 23:15, there was no one there to open our room for us. We spent half an hour walking around and phoning trying to see if anyone was there, with no luck. We then thought we need to find another accommodation for the night, unless we wanted to sleep in the car. I phoned the Loch Ness Backpackers at around 23:45 and to my surprise someone picked up (I think this was Patrick, the owner). I explained our situation and Patrick showed a lot of understanding and compassion, however he advised me that all the staff are already in their beds and as much as he would love to help, there is no one there to open the room for us so he couldn't help us. We spent the next 15 minutes trying to phone other hostels and hotels around, including some in Inverness, with no luck (in fact one person kinda shouted at me and hung up). At this point, especially as this was all my fault, I felt terrible, tired, angry at myself and just overall terrible, like I had ruined the whole trip for my siblings. As I was running out of ideas of who to call next, my phone rang and it was Patrick! He was so kind that he had contacted his staff (at midnight!) and one of them, Liam, was still awake so he very kindly agreed to get out of his warm bed for us and show us to the room. Liam and Patrick literally saved us. Patrick asked me what kind of room I wanted over the phone, and I told him very honestly that anything he can offer will be wonderful. He could have taken advantage and overcharged us, and we would have still been very grateful, however he was very fair and charged us £24 per person. Both Liam and Patrick also very kindly said not to worry about paying in the evening and that we can pay for our stay in the morning once we have had a good sleep. The room was small, with 7 beds, and I can see how it might get crowded if the room was full, however if was just 3 of us in the room so it was perfect. The room was warm and had a window, everything seemed very clean and we had a good sleep. We had our showers in the morning as the showers in that area of the hostel don't have hot water so late at night, which was clearly outlined on the signs in the bathroom. We cannot express our gratitude enough to both Patrick and Liam for their kindness. Thank you for giving us a warm bed for the night.