Palmerston Suites — Hotel in City of Edinburgh

• AVOID GROSVENOR SUITES *

I stayed at sister the sister site to Palmerston Suites, at 'Grosvenor Suites'.

Firstly, credit where it's due: my junior suite was of an acceptable size, featuring a small kitchen and ensuite bathroom in addition to the bedroom. All was presented cleanly; it was hygienic and no unwanted surprises. The bed was also very comfortable.

That's where the good stops. In a word, the room was DATED.

If you want Luxury , don't come here! It will give you disappointment. The furniture is poor and chipped - you wouldn't even want it in your own home. Cables hung down from the TV; a hdmi adapter just flopping about on the floor. All this could be tidied within minutes. Instead it looked messy, cheap.

The bathroom was nice, of good size. But there are broken tiles (mostly of cosmetic impact), and one of the shower doors has broken, detached from the lower rail. I also found it odd I was given a small quantity of shampoo/ shower gel. Nearly had to go out and buy more myself.

The kitchen was inadequate. Although making the most of the small space it was crammed into, it was WOEFULLY understocked. For some reason, it appears people steal the equipment: only a single fork, a paltry selection of cutlery and dishes remained. There were pans to cook from, but where was the kitchen knife??? Should I have to take my own knife with me on holiday??

To solve my dialemma, I first tried to call Palmerston Suites. No answer. I check the operating times - yes, its open alright. I tried again several more times, but to no avail. This is a SERIOUS failing. Judging by other reviews, I am not the only to have experienced this.

After an unsuccessful search at local supermarkets, I resolved to walk to Palmerston in person to ask for what was a strange - but vital! - request for a kitchen knife. Adding to the eriee atmosphere, the front door opened out into a pitch black reception hall... yes, middle of the day, height of summer, and totally black inside with no natural or automatic lights illuminating my path. Asking for help, a receptionist answered me from the gloom; she was able to help me with my request, seemingly by going taking a knife from another room. She was nice - so no blame on her - but this again is another failing which exposes the rampant chaos of this company.

There were a few other details, minor in comparison, but worth noticing - there was a gap underneath the door, it did not touch the ground. In addition, a small creature, some kind of louse, had managed to find its way into the kitchen, presumably by the inadequate door.

In all, my stay at Grosnvenor Suites was disappointing. Far from luxury, it confirmed what other doubters have to say - numerous flaws add up to a poor experience in comparison to the money paid. Highlight was the surprisingly comfortable bed, and the well-meaning, but in need of repair, bathroom.

It needs a MAJOR overhaul. Whoever the owners are, they are lazy. They have not inspected the rooms in person. They did not check the kitchen cupboards; the shortage of items could be easily resolved by a simple deposit and check before and after stay to ensure that all itemised objects remained in place. The knife debacle not only revealed the poor stock, but also major failings in the phoneline being dead and the reception at Palmerston weridly dark.

The place is just odd. Simple errors could be easily fixed with investment and due diligence. Serious thinking needs to be done...

This review is for Grosvenor Suites, which is another building run by the same company:

This accommodation is overall quite confusing. I’ll try and break down my observations into pros and cons with a conclusion at the end: Pros: location is pretty much spot on, easy transport links and only a 20 minute or so walk from the city centre. The exterior and communal interior of the building are stunning. High ceilings, chandeliers, huge banisters! The building is on a very quiet residential street We loved the keyless entry, using codes instead, easy and convenient! The bed was incredibly comfortable, and a high standard. The shower was of high specification Cons: There is no reception so no way of contacting anyone. We ran out of toilet roll, and couldn’t reach anyone through the online messaging system through hotels.com or via the out of hours phone number. We had to purchase our own, which I would not expect to do at a hotel. Although the kitchenette was generally well stocked, we had no mugs for hot drinks! Although probably to be expected, there was no housekeeping during our stay. This meant that consumables such as the aforementioned toilet paper and the tea/coffee could not be restocked. The decor of the room was interesting. Perhaps it’s just me, but a pastel blue feature wall opposite dark green curtains was not working for me! A lot of the items in the room were needlessly complicated to work, such as the shower and the hob. No information was left on how to work these. The room was nothing like what was pictured on the booking. It didn’t have a sofa, just two chairs, and was probably half the size of that shown. However, given the price it was still a perfectly usable and sizeable space. On our last day, housekeeping burst into the room around 2.5 hours before the check out time.

In conclusion, I think this accommodation just needs to decide if it is individual holiday let apartments, or if it is a hotel. If it was the former I would expect to be purchasing my own consumables and dealing with the same towels each day, but as it was listed as a hotel it didn’t quite meet expectations, and I think a rebrand, or more accurately, some clarification would be beneficial for this accommodation. Would I stay here again? Maybe. It wasn’t traumatic, and I probably am being quite harsh given the cheap prices that are offered. I just feel like these little changes could really take this accommodation up a level and make it a truly exciting...

There is no way in hell that this is 4 Star hotel. If this is what passes for 4 Star then the whole system is flawed, I've stayed in much nicer 3 Star places.||The Star rating is a lie, in my opinion, and the photographs of the room are not in anyway indicative of the room you get. Yes we stayed in the juinior suit, but the photos for that room where not the same as what we got.||The other reviews are quite correct, the room is fairly dirty and has long since seen better days, there are scuff marks about the place, the wardrobe is flithy, and the room morning noon and night the room is scorthing hot.||The bathroom I found particularly bad it was incredibly small and crammped and to get to the sink you had to squeeze past the shower it was all very uncomfortable and by partner cut herself doing this squeeze.||The kitchenette was cramped and hard to make things in, and the cutlerly had a certain level of grime to them, we had to wash everything after we came. Moreover, to go back to my first point for a second, there was minimal added extras you got the bog standard tea and coffee but really that was it, the netflix access was a plus for sure but overall there wasnt enough of that sort of thing for it to be truly 4 Stars.||Finally, the front desk staff are never there, they came in when we checked in and then were gone moments later and we never saw them again until we checked out, which was odd. We never saw another living soul whilst in the hotel which seemed a bit uncanny, but some will excuse all of these things for the location.||It is walkble to the town centre but please be aware it is 20 minutes at a good pace and 30-40 minutes if you walk slowly, bare in mind you might need to buy some ubers if you have early...