The Gifford

There is parking available if you get lucky, but it is street parking. The shower produced either scalding water or frigid water and nothing in between more than a few seconds. The rooms were nice and comfortable and the host was accommodating. Overall it was a nice stay.

I followed the check out procedure and left before the check out time and received a bill for late check out. I sent an email and the only response I got was an overdue bill notice for late check out. A self service hotel should have a way of tracking checkout times, this is ridiculous.

Great place, easy to get hold of staff when I had a problem with checking in!

While I'm sure there are nice rooms (there are over 120 photos on the website showing airy spaces and useful amenities), the room I got was terrible. It was a glorified storage space with barely enough room for a bed and a small piece of furniture that was supposed to double as a desk (it didn't, plus there was no chair). I found a photo, but near the end where nobody will see it. I feel like the owners put in the minimum effort with this room, but rest of the hotel looked fine. The only saving grace was the fact that it wasn't hot, because there's no way to get airflow in this room and it would have been an oven since it apparently wasn't designed as a living space. The location is fine, but the self check-in can be difficult (I encountered two different people who struggled). Overall, it's adequate and OK if you spend all day in Edinburgh and use it only as a place to sleep. You couldn't comfortably hang out in the room for more than a few minutes.

The space is located close to some good restaurants and tourist attractions and was cheaper than several other options in the area. It was not clear to us when we booked that “free self parking” meant that we would be looking for parking on the streets nearby, but we found a spot easy enough. The iPad self-check-in was not functioning when we arrived. After about a half-hour in the lobby, we were able to have someone call us and check us in. The room was nice enough, but it was extremely warm inside even with the fan running and the coffee maker didn’t seem to function.