Edinburgh City Suites

We only stayed one night as we transited through Edinburgh on the way to London . We normally like more room than a hotel offers so look for suites or apartments. I searched the internet and the Edinburgh City Suites seemed to meet our needs, however the reality was quite different. In communicating with the property group I was left to feel it was all about their rules and I as a paying guest was considered secondary. I was informed the apparently mandatory deposit of £100 for damages or breakages was paramount to completing the booking, we were travelling on a cruise and were informed by email that our payment hadn’t gone through 14 days before checking in, though the payment for the actual room night had been taken , but as we had not paid an additional fee of the £100 we would not be given the access codes to enter the suite. I was left with the feeling it was all about the money and not the experience of the paying guest but without the guest in a customer service industry you have no business. We have been asked for a deposit on occasions at some properties upon check in, NOT 14 days prior when the room night had been taken, I understand their business model is not to have a reception at the property but this then becomes a concern to the customer. They appear to take NO risk and put this entirely on the paying guest. I continued to communicate with the office staff and there appeared to me to be no leeway to our situation, being we were travelling on a ship and had sporadic internet access and were very suspicious of links to make payment. I actually explained to the office staff of my concern and all they could do was respond that the link was legitimate and unless we paid we would not be able to gain access to the property even though we had already paid for the one nights accommodation. I am extremely disappointed in their attitude and as a very experienced traveller I have, until this situation, never encountered such a negative experience. Therefore I cannot recommend this property or company being Corstorphine Hotels and Apartments and would never consider dealing with them again. The suite was in need of a refurbishment and clearly not designed to consider all demographics. The paint work was in desperate need of maintenance and some of the skirting boards were coming away from the wall. We are experienced travellers in our early 60s and everything in this particular property required low level access and was very compact with no apparent design to ergonomics. The quality of the available snack/refreshments were in our experience inferior as they were only sachets of Nescafé and pods of UHT milk, no coffee machine or complimentary bottle of wine. The amount charged for the night’s accommodation was not inconsiderable and access to the suite was not available until 3pm although this was made clear to us, however we had many experiences with other properties where we were fortunate enough to be able to access the suite before that

We were unable to access the building as we did not have code for the key pads. Eventually got in by another couple who were emailed the codes before their visit. Nobody in reception and nobody answering the phone number. Another 3 couples arrived with the same problem, all, like us, having booked through ***********. Eventually one of the couples got an answer to his phone call where he was given the code to his room. He kindly offered the rest of us his phone to get our codes. We got ours and went in to find the room already occupied! So we had the code for another’s room! Eventually got it sorted and got into the right room. Never again. Talk about stress!!

Not a bad spot, easily accessible from haymaket and a very clean building (smelt of bleach a little). The rooms were quite big but being an old converted house you heard doors slamming shut all night and the bed was really not comfortable and too small for two people averaging 6ft tall. Not bad, wouldn’t stay more than a couple of nights.