Not Great at the Herald (Herald House Hotel (Edinburgh))

Member Name: blondgem

Product:	Herald House Hotel (Edinburgh)
Date:	18/01/08 (29 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It was a room during Hogmanay

Disadvantages: Low budget, expensive, food wasn't great

Finding accommodation for New Year in Edinburgh is hard, you can normally get accommodation close to the town for the 30th December and 1st January but New Years Eve itself isvery hard as a lot of people only stay for the day. Ideally its best when you book early but when we went Edinburgh for Hogmanay it was a last minute decision to go and we had to try and get anywhere we good within a decent distance to where all the New Year celebrations go on.

I searched the web and came across the Herald House hotel, they did not have booking facilities on their own website so I gave them a call and luckily they had a double room for the three days over New Year. Bonus. They provisionally booked the room for me and I sent a cheque for 1/3 of the tatal balance to confirm the room.

Location

Situated approximately 5 mins taxi drive from Haymarket Station. Taxi's are extremely well priced in Edinburgh especialy during that time of year, I thought it would cost a fortune but they are very competitive in comparison with taxi's from where i come from.

The hotel is short walk to local amenities and approximately 20 minutes walk to the town centre and Edinburgh Castle itself. There are plenty of places to eat nearby.

Upon Arrival - Reception

The reception was small with a few chairs and tourist information located in and around the area. The lady on reception at that current time was extremely helpful in allocating us our rooms and we were happy with that. On New Years Eve and New Years Day, it was the manageress who was on reception as staff were off and didn't really seem interested in helping and i got the impression that really she did not want to be there.

Room

The room was adequate, i have stayed in far worse, however the window was very tiny in the room and did not let much air in. The room had hairdryer, tea and coffee making facilities and television. The bed was disappointing as we have booked a double room and it turned out to be a twin room. Decor was very nice and the room itself was bright. The bathroom was very small, couldn't fit two people in there at any one time, toilet, sink, shower and bath and minimal space in between them.

Restaurant

It gave me the impression that hotel was on a very low budget as the restaurant if you could call it a restaurant reminded me more of a college canteen, with plastic chair and the kind of trolleys that food was served in at school. Breakfast was okay.. nothing to shout about.. it was self service and there wasn't a great selection. Food was not changed regularly either.

Bar

Again, it was like a canteen.. very small with a couple of computers if you wanted to gain internet access. The food that was in the bar was very minimal and all drinks were not served from optics.. from bottles instead.. rather make shift to be honest and it wouldn't be somewhere that if you couldn't be bother leave the hotel to stay in for the best of the night. There was no ambiance to it whatsoever just long tubed lighting and far too bright. The only good thing i can report on this was that on New Years Eve.. they supplied one free polystyrene cup of soup to each guest.. which was actually very tasty.

Staff

Minimal staff.. think they had all been given New Year off and the manageress just wasn't very friendly at all. I got the impression that she was slagging her staff off just because she had to stay and run her hotel for the new year.

Price

The tariff for three nights, bed and breakfast at this time of year was £120 per room per night. I can appreciate that they will increase their prices over New Year but not worth paying any other time.

Overall

At the end of the day the hotel was just a place to lay our heads as we were enjoying the celebrations that Edinburgh had to offer. All in all i would not return to this hotel, it hasn't got a great deal to offer and i would rather have the bars and restaurant in a Travel Inn. They have a little bit more life to them.

Summary: Only stay if its the last place you can get in!!