ibis Edinburgh Centre South Bridge - Royal Mile — Hotel in City of Edinburgh

Booked a confirmed non-refundable deal via travel agent three months ago and arrived as a solo traveller to discover my room had been cancelled. Clearly caused a lot of panic as this was my last hotel stay in a foreign country and my budget was non-existent but I managed to find money to pay for a room I had already paid for. The room was not what I booked - it was a twin and as an apology reception arranged for the beds to be remade into a king. Room was located on Cowgate / Blair Street side which is right beside nightclubs which operate until 3am, then you have the attendees who don’t move on until 5am. This Ibis is a great location for walking visitors BUT it is above karaoke bars and nightclubs. Maybe the other sides are less noisy. My understanding was the non-refundable room I booked was premium but the room I had to pay for again certainly was not. Yes the room was a room and there was breakfast BUT beds pushed together need secured together otherwise they just drift apart during the night. Other hotels I know do push twin beds together but the legs are locked so they don’t result in a gap of sagging sheet. Ibis hotels are budget…the ensuite is like a cruise ship…essentially a single mould shower including basin and toilet. The hotel is also a bit battered with chips to MDF fitted furniture and stains on the carpet. Simply the price is OK for ‘bed taxed Edinburgh’ and location is good walking visitors BUT there is no soundproofing…and the nearby nightclubs/bar attendees don’t care. |Reception is also crowded most times you need to walk through but they do offer luggage storage which involves photographing your items and retrieving them yourself from the storage room. On a good note the restaurant meals and service are great. Breakfast I don’t know as I attended between 6-7am which is prior to cooked options…I needed to get some sleep so returned to bed. I did get a refund on check-out and travel agent utterly confused how a confirmed booking I had paid in full was able to be cancelled so that is still being investigated. Won’t stay again…in fact to avoid the excessive cost of staying in Edinburgh I would day trip into the city as transport options are both affordable and...

Staying here was a truly dreadful experience, probably the worst in 30 years of travelling for work. I don't often write reviews but this stay was so appalling, I'll make an exception in the hope that this might save other travellers.

So I stayed at the Ibis Edinburgh Centre South Bridge for two nights for a work trip in January 2024. Arrived mid-afternoon and found the toilet wash constantly flushing in my room. Informed front desk who told me they would get maintenance to fix it. An hour later I went out to a meeting followed by dinner, and so, knowing I would be back late, asked the desk if they could make sure it was fixed as I could not sleep with a constantly running cistern. Was assured it would be sorted when I returned.

Got back at 11.30 and the toilet was still running - the night desk staff told me maintenance would be there in the morning. I said i could not sleep there and the front desk gave me another room. By now it was late and I had an early start, so went to bed. After half an hour, I realised that the pipes in the new room made a VERY noisy 'clunk' every 10-15 minutes - just enough time to almost fall asleep before the CLUNK woke you up, and then you find yourself waiting for the next CLUNK - like water torture. Decided to try hard to ignore it as I did not want to move again - pillows on head, etc - but ended up awake till about 4am.

The next day was a very full day and evening of work, but popping in to my room to change in a short break before a working dinner, I noticed to my relief that the clunking seemed to have stopped, so I would not need to move again... Came back at midnight, now exhausted after a long day on 3 hours sleep the night before, to find an extremely loud band playing what felt like directly underneath my room, with the bass guitar reverberating through the bed. As this was Friday I assumed this would end at maybe 1am or 2am in the worst case - no, it was 3.30am when it finally ended.

Getting up for my early train the next day I'd had about 6 hours sleep over two nights. I would not wish this hotel on my...

The staff at this hotel deserves 5 stars, as does its location, and that's the reason why I'm not giving it one star. The rooms are another story. The impression that I had of the hotel based on the reviews and pictures that I'd seen online was positive, but I found the hotel unpleasant upon arrival. It had a spring break/party vibe that didn't sit right with me. Things went from iffy to terrible very quickly after we saw our room. The room had a strong smell of body odor and fried fish that had been poorly masked with air freshener. There was a bedside desk that was supposed to be affixed to the wall, but the caulk used to affix it had separated from the desk. The wall closest to the window was stained by whatever liquid had splattered onto it. The AC unit vent was caked with dust and something black, likely mold. But the smell was the most bothersome thing, it was the kind of smell that gets in your nostrils and on your clothes and stays with you. I immediately went back to the front desk and asked if it was possible to switch to another room, but with it being the day before Hogmanay kicked off, there just weren't rooms available. The front desk attendant was very apologetic and offered to have someone check out the room as soon as possible. We stepped out to check out a store across the street and when we returned the attendant informed me that it would take a bit for someone to check out the room. We made our way up to the room and were in the room for maybe 5-10 minutes when something triggered my son's allergies and he began to complain that his eyes were itchy. I ended up having to find another hotel and, considering that it's Hogmanay, was lucky to find one for the duration of our stay in Edinburgh. Maybe ours was an isolated experience, but it was unpleasant enough that we checked out not more than an hour after checking in. Again, the front desk staff was wonderful. They refunded the charge to my card and they definitely tried to help and were understanding, but a hotel shouldn't be in such a state when they're charging over £300 per...