The Murrayfield Hotel — Hotel in City of Edinburgh

After traveling the world for over 40 years, this was the most difficult stay at a hotel I have ever experienced, and this is first time I have felt the necessity to leave a review. I don’t know how so many things can go wrong, but my two adult children were so angry by the end of our stay, my son said: “This hotel almost ruined our vacation.” He basically felt that If our view of Scotland was based just on the experience at the hotel, he would never come back.

First, the receptionists are all very nice, but young and not very knowledgeable about the area near the hotel. They could not answer any of our questions on laundry facilities, bus routes, etc.

Second, the WiFi is horrible. No streaming. No downloading of anything. So our laptop was useless and we couldn’t watch movies.

Third, our original room was 2 flights up and we had to drag all our luggage up the stairs. There is no bell service, so my son got the brunt of that deal.

Fourth, we didn’t sleep much, if at all, for the first two nights, because the rooms have no AC and no circulation of air, even with a window open. Our room was stifling hot, though the temperature outside was cool. Fifth, the shower in our first room had discoloration in the grout, which could, and should, have been removed with some disinfectant (likely due to the lack of ventilation).

We spoke to management (Clair is very nice, don’t even try to get to Stuart - the general manager - they won’t let you talk to him) about the issues.

Sixth (I am going to stop counting now), while we were out, the staff took it upon themselves to move us to another room, throwing all of our personal items haphazardly into our various suitcases, without informing us beforehand. While I applaud the initiative, the method left a lot to be desired. It was upsetting to say the least that our belongings were handled by the staff in that manner. Aside from the personal feeling of violation, we had to spend over 30 minutes figuring out if everything was there (my daughter wasn’t sure if all her money transferred, but we did not want to make an accusation we couldn’t definitely establish) and sorting out the clean and dirty clothing they had thrown together into our suitcases. In addition, we had to sort our clothing and other personal items, since they had all been thrown into the suitcases without regard for whose they property they were. All this after a very long day of sightseeing. Needless to say, we were not happy.

To their credit, we were moved to a better room that we could at least get some sleep in. But in that room, the TV remote malfunctioned, so we could not even watch basic TV (first the remote wouldn’t change channels, and when then fixed that, the volume wouldn’t work...we gave up). It was agreed they would refund the charges for the first two nights. And they also gave us a free dinner. We ordered a few starters, not a full meal. It took two hours to get that small meal done, so we ended up having to eat at 10 pm (the salads we received consisted of nothing other than lettuce leaves....not even a tomato or olive thrown in).

All in all, I would say that if you want the amenities that normally accompany a 4 star hotel (or even a 3 star hotel in many locations), stay elsewhere. If all you want is a room and a bed, and you don’t care about or need anything else, this is your place (to be fair... they do provide robes and slippers). We couldn’t wait...

A lovely hotel with a fantastic location spoiled by poor service. Upon arrival reception staff were lovely and couldn't have done more to help us. We were there for an event and the outside areas were already filling up with fans as the hotel has 2 outdoor marquees set up to take full advantage of the passing trade.

Room was nice with the hotel even laying on some gifts and some little drinks for us on the day which again was a nice touch from them. The issues for the room was it was continually hot even with a small fan provided and a sliver of a window you could open it was not adequate to cool the room at all. Then when further looking at the room a glass with water already in it had been left from the night before patrons and the bin in the bathroom again hadn't been emptied from the previous nights ladies make up products she had discarded. So that I found really strange considering the reputation of the hotel.

Later at night we returned to our hotel to perhaps have a nightcap or 2 and some snacks etc. Only to be told abruptly by the night porter, nothing was available because and I quote "Everything has sold out", Really? Everything in the entire hotel was sold out?? Was such a preposterous statement to make and came across as really amateurish from the hotel. It felt like they'd been happy to take all our money during the day alongside that of your average off the street punter but now we had made all the cash and didn't care about those residing in the hotel. No snacks, crisps, water, nothing at a Hotel in the centre of Edinburgh? Poor show sadly.

The sheer incompetence of our lovely night porter was compounded in the morning when checking out, I checked out as required, wasn't even asked anything about my stay, no conversation etc. So when I offered the information of a used glass of water was left in the room and the bathroom bin was still full of items from the night before residents. The night porter reacted with a shrug of the shoulders. Yep like a 14 year old at the back of a class, he shrugged his shoulders and said nothing. So that really showed my how my money (and quite a bit of it considering rates in the area during a large event) was good but I was clearly not cared for or even welcome anymore.

So Great location, Some staff lovely, But would never stay again purely based on that awful...

This review is mixed.

The location, cleanness and most of the staff were brilliant.

The room we had, the shower and noise complaints were not so brilliant.

We stayed in a very clean room, perfect for two people with enough space for the two of us. I would say it was very cosy.

Any time we needed a fresh towel or more water the staff would nearly jump to go and get what you asked for.

The location is quite literally on the outskirts of the main city of Edinburgh. It is so close that myself and my partner walked into the town every day to get our steps in which was enjoyable.

Even though the room was clean and cosy, it was not what my partner said looked like when she was booking.

She said the rooms she was looking at were more spacious but when she booked they must have just put us into the rooms not shown on the pictures.

The room we had was facing out towards the back of the hotel which is ground level to the street and out towards a public car park. (I am not sure if it was part of the hotels).

One morning we were awoken to men talking laughing and shouting, having a catch up for about 10 mins at 5 am.

Another morning it sounded like bins were being collected which was also another early morning for us around 6 am so the noise was quite loud.

The shower takes some fiddling to get the correct temperature right. I had to ask reception to fix it and they sent someone to fix it which was great but then the next day the same problem rose and it was barely even hot.

Through fiddling and messing with it for nearly 10 mins the temperature rose but not to what the staff member got it to. Also, he never showed me how he got it to the hotter temperature and said before leaving sometimes this happens but now it’s sorted, until the next day when we both needed the shower again.

The last thing my which isn’t a big thing but upon checking out a guy was on a laptop near the main desk. When we said how do we check out as there was no one there he sprung up and said I can check you out but we felt as though we were taking him away from what he was doing on his laptop five feet away from the main desk in the reception.

He never asked us how was everything with our stay, just took the card and said nothing more.

So this is a mixed review.

I don’t think we’ll be returning to this hotel just because the bad out weighed the good...