Bland room, but great location (Travelodge - Edinburgh Central)

Member Name: T4imbo3107

Product:	Travelodge - Edinburgh Central
Date:	22/09/07 (282 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Walking distance from the castle.

Disadvantages: Lack of facilities in the room, very basic and no hairdryer or trouser press.

Hello and welcome to my review of my recent stay at the Edinburgh Central Travelodge. So here we were, sitting at the computer at home, my other half and I were discussing where to go for a week away. After some careful deliberation and persuasion from my other half we successfully agreed upon Edinburgh.

First thing was to book accommodation as it was no good arranging our flights without any Hotel rooms, the week we were going was the first week after the Tattoo and the City was still hectic as well as it was recovering from this and the Comedy Festival as well. So the first place we looked was Premier Travel Inn, no go on this one as the rooms are quite expensive and the location is not what we were looking for anyway as we wanted somewhere about 10 minutes walking from the City Centre. So the next stop was Travelodge.com to discover what they had.

Success!!!! A room was booked for four nights from the Monday to the Friday morning for just £264 for two people for four nights. This was not including Breakfast as that was an additional cost, but I will come to that later.

---Location---

The location is great for this place, you are literally about 50 yards south of the Royal Mile in the South Eastern quarter of the City. The Travelodge is located in St Mary's Road and from what we were told by the Tour Guides 100 years ago this was previously the slum area of the city as there were houses that were holding up to 50 people at a time. The modern building of the Travelodge was built on a site of an old Victorian Hospice.

When we stayed there we found it a great Hotel to for location alone, it was a 10 minute (uphill) walk to the Castle and roughly about the same distance and time to Waverley Station. As St Mary's Road is placed about two thirds of the way along the Royal Mile, it is a great place to walk as you are only five minutes (downhill) from the Palace of Holyrood, Arthur's Seat and Parliament in one direction. Although the Royal Mile can be considered to be a heavily tourist focussed place, there are some good shops to peruse. One good thing to point out is the Sightseeing Tours actually have a stop directly opposite the Travelodge, so in some cases if you don't feel like walking into town or up the hill you can catch the bus up instead.

There is also a plenitude of buses that run along the part of that part of the Royal Mile as well and they do run regularly. It is also only five minutes walk to am area called Cowgate, where there are a large number of bars and clubs, so the Travelodge is well within staggering distance.

--The Room---

The room itself was very basic but also very clean as well which was refreshing. There were posters stating that Travelodge was determined to give the utmost in room luxury but at an affordable price. To me that doesn't quite add up. It appeared this was true as the room it self not only was missing any nets at the window but also doors on the cupboards and even a hairdryer to use. The thing that I was disappointed with was the fact that there was no storage space and we ended up having to place the bags under the bed for storage which previously in other Travelodge's we were given a foldable stand or cupboard storage space that we could place our bags on or in as necessary. Probably just a minor issue but it did lower the comfort factor a bit and made it feel more like a Hostel than a Travelodge. I personally also thought that this was a bad move, the room was just basic, there was no Hair Dryer at all and again the shower and lavatory area reflected the level of basic that we saw in the sleeping area. Needless to say because the shower was just a walk-in without a door and just a curtain the water dripped off the curtain and went everywhere over the floor which not only made the floor highly slippery but also meant water was wasted. The TV in the room just had four channels available without any Channel Five at all; the reception on the set was not that good at all and was patchy. Complimentary Coffee and Tea making facilities were given and in the morning this was a welcome start to the day. With the level of basic features, I thought that this was a bit of manipulation on the whole to get you out of the room, maybe I'm just being paranoid but that was the feeling that I got.

Our room faced the back of the building facing East, where there is a Church and a building site. Probably not the best of views to see in the morning, but it was nice to wake in the shade and not have the Sun blazing through the windows. Noise wise it was fine as there was very little noise generated, even by the building site. The front of the building faces directly onto St Mary's Road, in the daytime it is quite a busy cobbled road as you get some of the Sight Seeing tour buses pass the building itself, and with coaches for the groups of guests who are staying at the Hotel parked outside. In the evening the road has a number of restaurants and is considerably less busy.

I found the bed to be very comfortable, with the exception of the pillows as these seemed to be cardboard thin and needed to be doubled over to get the correct thickness. Reception can provide more if necessary.

---Booking---

We booked on-line for £66 per night per room, which only included the room price as breakfast was additional cost at £7.50 per person. I found it to be easy to book on-line and got an answer straight away as to whether there was a room available or not. If there isn't any available then the website will advise as to where the next nearest available room actually is. As soon as I turned up on arrival and mentioned that I had a booking then we were given the room key and advised where we needed to proceed to go to get to our room. A professional service was given throughout.

To give some idea as to how much we saved by booking on-line, there was a notice in Reception stating that all rooms were a flat £80 charge per night.

---The Hotel---

The hotel is decorated throughout in the same tonal colour as any other Travelodge, the decorating and colour did not stop at certain levels and as was continuous throughout the place which was nice. In the Bar/ Restaurant area there were a mixture comfy sofas and tables and chairs. My only qualm was that it was always warm in the Hotel and never seemed to cool down at all, especially in the Reception area. The Hotel does have a limited number of Car Park spaces located at the back of the building, we didn't drive to Edinburgh and didn't use this facility, but if you do hire a car to explore such areas as the Highlands or even the Forth Bridge then this is an opportunity that cannot be missed as the nearest Car Park is quite some distance away with the parking bays outside the building in constant use.

The one issue I did have was with the lift in the building as it was erratic to say the least and it appeared that only one out of the two were working at the time of my stay. We were okay as our room was on the second floor, but for others that were at a higher level, this could cause a few problems.

---Meals---

Breakfast is an 'all you can eat' meal up to 10am so you have the chance of getting a good start to the day, believe me you won't want to have anything to at least dinner time if you have one of these Breakfasts. Although as I said it is a good start to the day, you will feel weighed down afterwards. We only did this once throughout our stay as we found that we wanted to get out early and start walking round, instead of having Breakfast at the Lodge we ate on the Royal Mile. It did work out cheaper than £15 for the both of use and also saved some time as well. The Breakfast is all self-service with the standard offerings of Eggs, Bacon and Sausage, Toast etc. The good thing was that there was plenty of fresh fruit and yoghurt available as well as various cereals so all bases were covered.

In the evening the Restaurant becomes the Bar which is open till 1am, the prices were not too bad for a pint of lager, and there is also a food menu available right up to late evening. Unfortunately the night we decided to eat in parts of the menu was not available as they had already sold out of most of the menu itself, this was only at 8.30pm. Not stopping us we ordered Fish and Chips and these were served within about 15 minutes of ordering and were not only tasty but also good value for money.

---Overall---

A good location, but I found the room a little bit bland, the price I thought was good especially as we did not have to get cabs anywhere around the City to get back to the Travelodge. We weren't really in the Hotel that much as we were out doing the sights of the City, which of course I will review at a later date.

Bottom line is that I enjoyed the stay here on the whole and would recommend for the location as well as the Car Park facilities as well and the potential that offers. As Edinburgh recently vetoed plans for a Congestion Charge then this makes it all the more appealing to stay here.

Thanks for reading and until next time. Tim

Summary: A good place to stay, but the fact is you wont be staying in much anyway as there is loads to do.