You always take a gamble when booking a hotel online in a city you are not familiar with. I spent last weekend in Edinburgh for my first time and booked this hotel a few months before going. As you would expect there were both good and bad points.

Good Points:
The location has got to be the best thing about the hotel. It is situated on North Bridge, a stones throw from the Royal Mile, closer to the Castle end than the Palace end. We spent a lot of our time walking up and down the Royal Mile and going on tours just off it. It is the main tourist area, so the hotel is perfectly located for it.

Price was also quite good. We paid £250.00 for a Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, which I think was quite good for a weekend and for the standard of hotel that we were looking for. The Carlton is apparently a four star hotel and it was at least £120.00 cheaper than any other similar starred hotel in Edinburgh for that weekend when I was looking to book.

We arrived early in the morning and were able to leave our bags at the hotel while we went off around the sites. This was great as we did not have to lug them round with us. We were also able to leave our bags at the hotel when we checked out as our flight was in the evening.

Some of the things in the room were quite useful, such as the trouser press, iron and welcome book.

The concierge guy Mike, was very enthusiastic and very helpful. He advised us what tours were best and where to go and what to do. he was smiley and friendly and seemed as though he genuinely wanted to help - thanks Mike!

Bad things:
There is no way that this hotel is four star, I am sorry. A four star hotel for me should be damn near perfect, a little bit short of a five star. So I (perhaps unwisely) expect the rooms to be finished to a very high standard at the very least. When we got to our room, it was facing onto the street, which was busy and noisy and instead of a double bed we had two singles pushed together - not what we wanted for our first anniversary! So we asked to be moved to a double room in a quieter part of the hotel. Thankfully, this was done quickly, although the porter looked as if we had disturbed his sleep, as he was none too pleased.

Our new room, although having a double bed, was still a bit basic. Some of the decor was dated and peeling and we had a big old television. The website claimed to have satelitte and cable tv, but we only had 9 channels.

The bathroom was ok, but when the maids were making up our room, they did not replace the showerg gel and shampoo - ok, I know it is only a little thing, but it was supposedly a four star hotel.

Our air conditioning knob was missing, so we could not control the temperature in the room. As we had already moved room once, we did not want to change rooms, but wondered if something could be done. The porter (a different one this time) came to the room and he suggested either (a) opening a window if we were hot, or (b) turning on the radiator if we were cold. The window one did not really work, as they only opened a tiny amount as we were on the fifth floor. So he gave us a big loud electric fan to blow the hot air around the room. Not ideal.

We were asked if we wanted a newspaper in the morning. I though that this would be complimentary, but we were charged for them. Only a small thing, but any other 4 star hotel I had stayed in had given complimentary papers.

With the exception of Mike (see above) the staff were pretty sour and unhelpful, as if when we asked for coffee at breakfast we were greatly putting them out, even though I think it was their job. Or when asking for a fresh egg for the breakfast buffet, we were told tha the chef was very busy.

As hotel guests we had use of the leisure centre. It was not all that good, as it seemed dirty and had puddles of old water everywhere. A good clean would have been helpful.

Perhaps in hindsight, a more romantic and not business hotel should have been booked, but the location of the Carlton was excellent