Not far from Haymarket Station, it's only a 10 minute walk. Got a twin room on the third floor out of the five available, 15:00 check-in, 11:00 checkout.

Aesthetics look nice. Lift access was keycard only which was a bit confusing because you had to hold it on the reader until it turns green then call the lift. If you just tap your card without calling it, it doesn't open of course... I guess the order makes sense though.

Room itself was nice. Fairly mute interior, choice of framed pictures and good lighting. Maybe just the mirror frames look a bit out of place but there are two of them; one at the desk and the usual full height one by the door. Another in the bathroom.

Plenty of plugs. There's storage space too with some drawers by the bed which some hotels don't have. Also a safe which is simple enough to operate, similar to a locker. You could leave some gadgets behind to save your backpack a few kilos.

There isn't a clock but most have their phone of course or smartwatch. There's a clock on the thermostat but it wasn't Daylight Saving adjusted.

Bed duvet was really thin... pretty much no fluffy duvet to wrap up in but warm enough even though it was winter when i was there. The Toshiba branded thermostat was easy enough to adjust otherwise with heating, cooling and fan modes. There were no windows you could open so fan mode could be handy if you have takeaways.

One of the LED bulbs was flickering but fortunately wasn't too bad to the naked eye. Once you have a camera rolling, you'll see the flickering indicating it was going to go soon. I also found the bed lights a bit too bright but thankfully they were the swiwel type so you could turn them away.

Unless you turn on the TV, you won't find any instructions on how to connect to wifi. Then again, you can always just try connecting to the (unsecured) network named after the place which is what I did and it sends you through a portal site as usual before you could start using the net.

Mind you, using open or public wifi isn't exactly a very secure thing to do because anyone could record your activities but a secure connection through SSL is usually enough to prevent sensitive data such as login data from being captured. On the other hand, the site URLs you visit are fully visible such as "?search=cat+pictures" or "/directions?from=hotel+to=nice+bar". It's also important you don't end up connecting to a malicious wifi network because it wiil control all traffic and can easily show fake sites as legit at which point not even SSL will help.

But anyway... Connection's quite speedy at 100Mbps (approx 12.5MB/s) both ways when at its best. Beats my home 40Mbps definitely.

The closet had hangers with bags if you needed laundry services. Funnily enough the closet and toilet shares a single sliding door which felt kind of odd. Unless you won't be using the closet you could be making a lot of noise, which again the "sound proof" should mean it doesn't matter. Leaving it half way open kind of works if you're slim enough.

Bathroom itself was fairly much clean which is rare in hotels no matter which country you're in.

There wasn't toothbrushes or toothpaste which seems to be the norm in UK hotels these days but I bring my own anyway.

No signs of mold but the odd stain if you look closely so the cleaners were doing a good job mostly.

That said, I haven't actually seen the other rooms.

Speaking of room cleaning, I returned to find the sink's drain was covered one time. I then tried to press the cover thinking it was spring loaded but that didn't work. Tried to unscrew it but didn't work either. None of the ways I'm used to worked so I examined the tap and hidden behind it was a small lever. That did the trick.

My room was advertised with "soundproofing" but I can hear sounds from the hallway so I don't know if that's supposed to happen. Nice to have when I'm moving my luggage around, playing music on speaker or using my electric toothbrush etc. I could also hear people when in the toilet (probably through the ventilation) but almost nothing from adjacent rooms unless you're close to the wall. The room was at the front on the hotel which was on a main road with bus stops so I could hear cars and buses driving pass outside too but fortunately it's not a busy road. I can't hear the traffic most of the time.

Room service wise, they only change your towels daily, bedsheets every 4th day unless you use the sign to ask it changed. You can also hang a sign out to opt out of it completely and gain some bonus loyalty points. In either case full cleaning will always happen on the 4th day of stay which is fair enough.

With that said, I think mine were still changed every day for the short stay I was there.

Speaking of which, if you're not spending most of the day away but still expect room cleaning, you'll want to be out of the room until regular check-in time. I returned early and the staff was just clearing out the floor I was on. Ended up asking if I could wait in the lobby where the bar is and was allowed fortunately.

Lack of Amenities and Noise

There are your usual amenities; tea bags and kettle although horror stories mean I don't use them...

Other than that there really wasn't much amenities at all. You get some towels. Sometimes I get 3, others I get 4 so I'm not sure the exact number or the people re-stocking might be new but, either way there were enough for me. Only one of them is small hand towel sized, no smaller face towel. The rest are large bath towel sized.

No minibar or mini fridge which seems to be common in the EU apparently (and UK too of course) so no where to keep cold drinks or food cold. I'm too used to hotels in Japan mainly which always had a mini fridge.

There weren't any slippers either to move around in for the night so you're stuck in your shoes or socks. There's a hair dryer, iron with board and laundry bags which you can fill and hand to reception.I don't think I've stayed at any hotel where there weren't the odd noise at night so I always bring earplugs. It's mostly through the ventilion ducts, possibly from adjacent rooms. One place there were road works nearby in the middle of the night and another had a mini fridge that buzzed loudly at night.

The bed side lights were also quite cumbersome to use because you had to reach up to use the rocker style switches right under them. It does make you appreciate places that have switches situated on the bed stand instead.

Rain hitting the window can be pretty loud because some of it hits the metal frame, which isn't as pleasant as when it hits glass. It can be particularly irritating when it's raining throughout the night like listening to a loud "dripping" sound. Scotland isn't particularly known for its sunny weather. I ended up using earplugs.

The view I got from the third floor didn't quite match the photos. Instead of full wall height window, I got a window that spanned half the wall but the curtain covers the entire wall which felt kind of odd. I guess aesthetically it looks more pleasing once the curtains are fully drawn.

There wasn't much of a view either because it was the front of the hotel and opposite it was a construction site next to flats (AKA apartments) being built nearby with bins and graffiti. I didn't pick the place for the view and considering the price, wasn't expecting one either but a sunrise/sunset timelapse could have been interesting judging from photos.

Buffet Breakfast

This was between 6 and 10am during the weekdays (7 - 11 weekends). 6 - 8am was supposed to be quiet and it was indeed fairly quiet when I got down at 7.

Dining area is spacious, plenty of comfortable seats.

Nice aesthetics like nautilic lamps hanging from the ceiling, glass ornaments dark wood shelves and local news on TV.

Drink machines had a decent variety and also served hot water for the variety of tea bags available.

There doesn't seem to be a water dispenser available when I asked but I kept my thermal flask filled with these machines. The staff were friendly enough to help me fit my tall flask even though the trays were meant for shorter mugs.

There are at least two serving points for everything so you're unlikely to wait long for anything. Maybe if you choose to make your own fresh waffles.

Only the hot food area had a single serving point.

Unfortunately I found the hot food overcooked. Hash potatoes were very hard and so were the sausages. Scrambled eggs were cold. I thought it might depend on the person handling the cooking but they were the same when I tried again another morning.

I ended up sticking with oats even though it was with hot water instead of using milk like i was used to but it didn't turn out too bad.

Rather than return your own trays, there are a lot of staff around to clean up after guests.

There are bus stops right outside the hotel that can take you to the main tourist spot areas around Haymarket and Waverley, short 20 min bus ride. Fairly much like other UK buses, they offer a simple contactless payment system so you don't have to care about installing another app or paper tickets.

Walking is possible too of course, and could be faster than the buses since there won't be any detours. Also plenty of cafes and restaurants including your usual chain ones like Starbucks, KFC etc within 5 - 10 minutes walk, as well as small supermakets.

Other than the lack of amenities and rather poorly prepared hot food at the breakfast buffet, the rooms were nice and clean (clean looking bathrooms!), spacious aesthetically pleasing dining space. Very helpful staff too when approached.