Yugo Canal Point - Student Accommodation — Hotel in City of Edinburgh

Stayed here for 2 years during my undergraduate.

GOOD POINTS: -Very friendly and helpful staff. Front desk is generally efficient. -Good internet (pro tip: buy an ethernet cable and plug in under your desk). -New building, generally in good taste. Beds are very comfortable, and there is a reasonable amount of storage in rooms. Kitchen and bathroom facilities were cheap (one of our sinks deformed/leaked because people left their pots in it), but this is standard for student accommodations. -Plenty of bike racks. -Beautiful location, especially for Heriot Watt students who want to cycle to University. Also, lots of restaurants around, and close to city center. -Electricity, internet and heating included in rent, so don't need to worry about cranking up the heaters (note: TV licence NOT included, so you usually have to deal with an annoying letter at the start of each year).

ISSUES: -Lack of large/cheap grocery store nearby. -No direct bus connection to Princess Street (and hence to Waverly). -Desks in rooms are very shallow. This is a major issue for students, as it's impossible to work on a paper or book in front of your laptop. -Have to put belongings in storage over the summer (note: I think this is again standard for student accommodations). -Somewhat expensive (although on-par with other student homes of similar quality). -Use circuit laundry; a very expensive third-party laundry service which I personally hate. -My first year had many fire alarms. The second year was much better.

On the whole, Canal Point offers a competitive deal for above-average student accommodations. How much you enjoy your stay mostly depends on your flatmates, and if you can organize yourselves to clean the kitchen (note: students are responsible for keeping kitchen/rooms clean). My recommendation to new students is to pick accommodations based on easy access to your University. On that count, Canal Point is one of the closest student accommodation facilities to Heriot Watt and Napier...

If you are in your first year studying at UoE especially if you are at King’s Building, please do not choose to stay here.

The room is extremely small and for the price you are paying (10000) this pales in comparison to some of the cheaper places such as fraser’s court which is near pollock halls that is nearly twice as wide. The space that I have in between my bed and my desk is about the width of my shoulders making it really claustrophobic especially if you are someone that likes having space.

You are extremely isolated from most of the student scene especially during freshers week making it really difficult to make friends without having to go out of your way to travel around every night that you want to out making the already small amount of friends I was able to get even more isolated from me. Sure you can argue that the common room would be a good start to make some friends however many of the students that are here are not even in their first year thus making it hard to form a connection with. This along with the miniscule size of the common room add to the already crushing feeling of how small everything is. For example, at even cheaper price at around 8k, Salisbury court has a massive common room with ping pong tables, foosball, a projector and a playstation all with a huge amount of space to relax yet our common room is tucked away in some random hallway.

Lastly, I did not pay 10k to live in a building that had loud construction for the entirety of my first term adding to an already miserable experience.

The only two positives of this place are that the in-room facilities like the bathroom and heater are in very good condition. The staff are also very helpful and extremely pleasant.

If you would want to live in an overpriced, small and depressing accommodation this would be perfect for you but otherwise please choose anywhere else especially in...

My first accommodation when I arrived in Edinburgh.. Self contained rooms with a toilet and shower, theres a common kitchen area with cooking facilities, plates and cutlery.. And helpful staff in the front office with plenty of maps (that I kept losing..)

Edit... By the way.. I have to say, this was the best accommodation I had on my whole trip.. I stayed in a hotel for a few days sharing a room with 3 others in Kyleekin on Skye with rickety bunk beds and wobbly toilets, then stayed in a converted High School in Inverness, it was ok if you like sharing with 5 others in a room.. Then shared a room in a hotel (Kensington Hilton) in London that was really noisy with police cars up n down the road every ten minutes.. I found my little self contained room in Edinburgh was the ducks guts.. I loved it.. If I ever get to come to Edinburgh again, I'd love to stay here again. The location of the place is so close to so many touristy things in the city and lots of eateries close by too.. And if you want to cook your own meals the kitchen facilities...