Kick Ass Grassmarket

Good experience for a first time in a hostel. The location is excellent and staff friendly. I stayed in a pod room. The pod was ok, pretty comfortable and nice privacy. The ventilation is pretty bad tho, so at night you get sweaty if the curtain is closed. First night people were quite noisy at night, you hear every little thing so people coming back from bars at night is noticeable. Second night was a lot more calm, so depends on the people staying there with you. The corridor with the toilets does smell, but otherwise they were quite clean. Overall good value for money!

I'm writing this review as a happy returning customer. ☺️ I've visited Edinburgh twice now and stayed at Kick Ass Grassmarket on both times. The first time I had a capsule bed in a mixed dorm room and on the second time we booked a twin room. I really liked the idea of a capsule bed for its privacy yet decent price and I feel like it matched my needs; provided a comfortable personal space with electric outlets and a safe locker for all my stuff. The only issues with the capsule bed were a) climbing into it and b) lack of ventilation. The latter seemed to be manageable when sleeping towards the doorway of the bed when the window of the room is open (as well as the curtain on the doorway of the bed). However, my visit was during September so it might be harder to manage in summertime. With the double room I shared with a friend I had no issues with. The bed and duvet were SO comfortable we marveled them multiple times. On all my visits I've had a bathroom/shower next door to my room. There are also so many of them (a big bathroom with multiple private showers and in addition a whole bunch of one person mini bathroom/toilets) that I never had to wait for my turn. The showers are very simple and small, I suggest bringing the toiletry with you. There's also a bunch of stuff you can rent from the front desk if needed (towel, eg.) The hostel also has a laundry room (with an iron and a dryer as well), a well equipped kitchen and a few comfortable lounge spaces. The receptions drinks are quite cheap and I've yet to have an issue they can't help me with. The cleanlines off the hostel surprised me the first time I visited – it was the first time I stayed at a hostel overall! I'd say managing expectations is key here. There are so many people using many of the facilities at the same time that I don't find immaculate cleanliness realistic. There might be a fingerprint in the shower, a hair somewhere, or a clogged toilet here and there but everything gets fixed quick. Overall everything seemed very clean to me and I was happy to see the cleaners doing their rounds all the time multiple times a day (it seemed). Obviously the location is spectacular. The lounge room and some rooms have a beautiful view of the Edinburgh Castle. It's literally the first thing you see when you step outside the door. The grassmarket area has a lot of great cafes, bookstores and a few small markets for groceries, snacks and other small needs. A lot of the Pinterest-worthy locations (Victoria Street, Vennel Viewpoint, Greyfriars etc) are a only a few minute walk away. There's also a bus stop for all the major sightseeing buses across the street. A walk to the Royal Mile is around 5-10 minutes. Other things shortly: - Lockers before/after check out for a few bucks - Not noisy, at night the bathroom/room doors are an exception - A very minimal breakfast available for a few bucks - I recommend keeping the window open if possible - Be considerate of others when arriving at night (lights, noise) - The under pod locker fits a basic hand luggage - NO ELEVATOR! Prepare for 4 floors max. - Feels like home to me already <3

While the hostel’s facilities are good and the location is excellent, our experience was unfortunately ruined by the receptionist who was working on Tuesday 7th afternoon. When we arrived, we were informed that not only would we not be staying in the same room, but that we would both have to check out and check back in again in the middle of our stay. This meant packing all our things, leaving the room, and being "roomless" for around four hours — even though we were paying for three consecutive nights. Needless to say, this was very inconvenient since we had an early morning (7am) tour the next day. We found the situation quite unusual, so we asked if there might have been an error in the reservation system. The receptionist responded that this was “very common in hostels.” What followed escalated quickly and became a very unpleasant exchange. He called us inflexible, questioned whether we had ever stayed in a hostel before (I’ve been staying in hostels since I was 18 and I’m 36 now), and even asked personal questions like “what do you do for work?”, also he stated that "they assume we would use those 4 hours to explore the city, not sleep." He tried to have us go round the desk and "organize" the rooms ourselves. His tone throughout was arrogant and condescending, even after we had already accepted the situation, and said SEVERAL TIMES: "It's OK, just give us the rooms, because we need to leave in a few minutes" — it genuinely felt like he wanted to pick a fight. It wasn’t until we told him he was being rude that he finally stopped arguing. Because of this incident, we had to rush to accommodate in the rooms and ended up missing the first part of a tour we had already booked for the day. We were really excited about visiting Edinburgh, but this experience completely spoiled the beginning of our stay.

I'm a solo traveler and I stayed in a 10 bed share room and it was pretty ok. It was nice to have a fully equipped kitchen with an oven (no baking paper or foil) and my room was not too cramped, there was space for me to pack my luggage without being in any one's way. The biggest 2 let downs was the slow and patchy wifi and the cold showers, I tried a couple of showers on different floors and the water was all cold, there was only one shower (106) that was somewhat warm. I think there boiler system cannot keep up with the guests. I ended up going to the gym to have a hot shower instead. The corridor also had a weird musky smell. My bed and pillow was comfortable! Although I found a pair of underwear and sock on the side of my bed... laundry is also 4 pounds and 2.50 for drying.

Solid 4/5, very good for a short trip. I was staying 3 nights and met some very nice and friendly people during my stay. The stuff was also very helpful and positive. Thanks a lot to Darren for helping me with my bag when I was moving to another room! (It was how I booked it, so no mistake on hostel's side 😊) I was not facing any problems or issues with people or stuff. Everybody was respectful. I wish I could have a bit more time so I could actually participate in some hostel activities like board games or quizzes. Maybe I'll come back to this specific hostel again some day as I still haven't done all of my Scotland's planned activities

Ali was absolutely incredible — so helpful, full of great advice about the area, and just an all-around fun character who made the experience even better. I stayed in a pod room, which had great features and a surprisingly comfortable bed. I also loved meeting like-minded travelers in the room; it made for such a fun and social atmosphere. The location is superb, right in the heart of everything. The staff were all fun, professional, and welcoming. I can’t wait to come back to Scotland and stay here again! Highly recommend.

The location was hands down 10/10. Right in the Grassmarket area, views of the castle, dozens of bars and restaurants within 2min of the front door, and walking distance to everywhere! Staff was very welcoming and helpful. Rooms were very hot in the dead of summer, and showers were cold, with a few out of service. The heat of the rooms made it a bit hard to sleep, but I would still stay the experience was positive!

Sheets were clean, but there was a lot of dirt under the mattresses in both our capsules; no airflow and quite warm (although it was cold outside) made it very hard to breathe & did not result in good sleep. Sleeping was actually only possible, when the curtain was kept open (hence no privacy anymore). Bathrooms and toilets were okay but could have been kept cleaner, especially since there were so many people going in and out. Staff was really nice though!