Ami B
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I’d like to start by saying that Edinburgh is a BEAUTIFUL city with seemingly endless things to do. Although my family and I only stayed for 3.5 days as a part of our UK trip, we accomplished a multitude of activities, all listed in this post. Our experience, as poor as it was at this guest house, does not at all reflect the kindness, thoughtfulness, and honest nature of the Scottish people, so don’t let this post deter you from visiting Edinburgh and Scotland in general. Here is my pros/cons list. ||||Pros: ||1. Bus stop (Somerset Place) to city center is extremely close and therefore convenient to utilize especially if you won’t be driving a car in Edinburgh. 2. WiFi was good. ||3. Upon arriving hours early before our check in time, we were still allowed in the room early and greeted kindly by Luke with juice, tea, and biscuits. 4. I’m trying to think of another good thing to say. ||||Cons: ||1. No air conditioning. It was extremely hot during our stay and we were only given a small fan that we had to keep turned on constantly so the room wouldn’t overheat. We were also not provided flat sheets despite the hot weather, so after 2 nights of only thick blankets and duvets, we had to text the reception to give us flat sheets. ||2. No working TVs. Not in room or main room. ||3. No elevator. With 3 huge luggages, I’m pretty sure I tore something in my back carrying the luggages up and down the stairs. ||4. No real reception. After being greeted by Luke upon our arrival, we never saw him again or anyone else after that for that matter. This only was a problem because, for example, if you run out of toilet paper, towels, etc, you can’t just go ask the reception because there’s no one there to help you. The fact that you have to text/call the reception is fairly inconvenient but they did respond in a timely manner at least. ||5. Front door situation.The front door touchpad locks are actually pretty refined and modern, but the issue becomes that despite being told to always make sure the doors are shut, other guests do not follow these rules and often, we would come back from a day out or wake up in the morning to the front doors wide open. ||6. Housekeeping don’t actually clean. Besides changing the garbage bags and straightening out the bed sheets, no actual cleaning is done in the room. The towel situation is even worse. The first night, I got my bath towel dirty accidentally, left it on the floor of the bathroom to be switched out for a new one, and came back later that day to it be laid out on the bathroom floor and without a clean, dry towel to use that night, so I was forced to buy a bath towel from Tesco for £7. Another issue with the bathroom is that toilet paper seems hard to come by unless you specifically request extra rolls be given. ||7. Since we stayed in a room for 3 people, it was a queen (?) bed and a twin bed (which I slept in) that were hard as rocks. My bed specifically was so old and rickety, every time I sat on it I actually felt that I would fall right through. I don’t think I actually slept any of the 4 nights we were there. ||8. Room decor is extremely outdated and deceiving. We thought we were going to stay in a roomy, boutique-style suite, and what we stayed in was far from it. The pictures posted on Google were what lead us to pick this guest house in the first place, but I think those must be like stock images or something because nothing in the building looks as good as those pictures. ||||In conclusion, we were charged over $300 a night for 3 people and got no noteworthy amenities worth that much. I want everyone to understand that yes, I do know that this is a GUEST HOUSE and not a HOTEL, but for the money we paid for, for the reviews written, and for everything promised, we could’ve paid less for a much nicer hotel than what we paid for here. I’m not the type of person to complain and write reviews, but I wanted to do this review for 2 reasons: I want to offer constructive criticism to the owner and I want to warn anyone visiting Edinburgh to stay far away from this place.||||Some extras to keep in mind:||||Few things to say about activities: ||1. No, there are no “activities” available in the building. Not that I was expecting any (but I really should’ve for $300 a night). In fact, what was most disappointing was that the TV in our room didn’t work and neither did the one in the main room. I should also mention that in our specific room, the TV placement was quite horrible to say the least, but that didn’t really matter anyways since it didn’t work. ||2. As far as outside of the building, there are actually some pretty nice restaurants within walking distance of the house like The Percy (polish cuisine, so delicious we ate there twice during our stay) and Bijou “on the links” bistro. There is also a Tesco Supermarket across the street from The Percy. ||3. Most, if not all, of Edinburgh activities will be done on or around Princes Street or the Royal Mile. Using either the 1 or 49 bus (the bus stop about a 2 minute walk from Sandaig), you can make it there within 20-30 minutes considering bus delays. My family and I personally did the following: Edinburgh Castle tour, Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Royal Yacht Britannia, St. Giles Cathedral, National Galleries of Scotland, The University of Edinburgh, Portobello Beach, the Surgeons’ Hall Museum, and the Royal Botanic Garden, all of these done during our 3.5 day visit. All of these places mentioned I HIGHLY recommended, especially Edinburgh Castle, the National Galleries of Scotland, and the Royal Botanic Garden.||||Food & drinks||I have 2 things to say about food & drinks: ||1. As of July 2024, they do NOT serve breakfast. My family and I were mislead by reviews from a year ago saying they did, although even then, it didn’t sound like a refined operation based on previous reviews. ||2. There was no fridge in our room or in the building. I would not usually have a problem with this, but it bothered me for a few reasons. First off, my parents, who I traveled with, are both diabetic and have medications that must be stored in the refrigerator, so with no fridge, they were forced to just keep them unrefrigerated. Second, drinking warm water in the middle of July is not preferable, but bearable nonetheless. Third, although there is no fridge, there is a cooler in the main room that could make a bottle of water a bit chilled in about a day. Using what we could, we tried to leave a larger bottled water in that cooler for about a day but were disappointed when it was stolen by another guest (you should know that it was already a quarter empty!). The point is, the cooler is unreliable if you want to store personal items. Don’t be surprised if they are stolen.
