What People are saying
If you want to experience a homeless shelter
Natalia Mon 14/09/2015 17:09This place is a one-star hostel at best. Don’t stay there! Our so called “deluxe” room looked nothing like the photo on hotels.com. “A shelter for the homeless” would be a more fitting description. It was bare minimum with run-down furniture, threadbare linens and towels, no soap in the bathroom, no curtains on the window, just crooked blinds which didn’t work and old newspaper (for privacy I guess; our room was on the ground floor). The hallways and room always smelled terribly from too much cleaning. But the lobby luggage area was scary dirty. The front desk people were courteous, though thoroughly dishonest. Yes, it’s a student dorm, but we’ve stayed in better dorms and hostels. The only good thing about this place is the central location. Otherwise, it’s a disgrace.
Not very comfortable, but a great location
Rahela Bon 04/09/2015 15:05This is not super comfortable, nor can it boast any kind of luxury, but none of this was advertised, so I was fairly happy with my accommodation. In a month when the festival is roaring through Edinburgh, this is a very quite corner just 5 minutes walking distance from, well, everything. Royal Mile, Waverly, Princes Street, just around the corner. I do wish beds were a bit bigger, and there were extra blankets, though. Otherwise, it was clean and quite, and that's what I needed after gallivanting around day and night.
Convenient but noisy!
LBYork15on 02/09/2015 21:24I was under no illusions that this was a student studio flat and not a 4* hotel, but having read some of the reviews on here (after booking) I was slightly scared about what I might find! I have to say I was, on the whole, pleasantly surprised. We stayed for 9 nights whilst performing at The Fringe, and location-wise it was great. Just behind Princes Street was a great place to be for convenience, but I have to say it's one of the noisiest places I've ever stayed! There's no double glazing so every wheelie suitcase that went by (and situated near the bus station as it is, there were a lot of wheelie suitcases), every siren, seagull and conversation from the street was like it was in the room with us! However we were at the front over the entrance on the first floor so directly above the pathway - maybe it would have been better if we'd been at the back of the building.
The room itself seemed clean and there was a perfectly adequate kitchen with fridge, 2 hotplates, an oven which was also a microwave (no instructions, we had to google how to work it!), kettle and toaster, 2 sets of crockery and cutlery and a few pans - fine for pasta and ready meals!
The shower was pretty good, and our sheets and towels were changed on the 4th day. There are no toiletries provided so take your own! The bed was pretty saggy and uncomfortable and the sheets and pillows were rather thin and flat - a couple of nights would've been ok but 9 nights in it was a struggle!
The staff were friendly enough in the minimal dealings we had with them, and there was a good TV and free wi-fi in the room. There was also a storage room where we could leave luggage (at our own risk, although it was padlocked).
In summary, if you're prepared to rough it a bit then it's a handy base for central Edinburgh and very close to both the bus and train stations, but I would think twice about staying there again simply because of the noise from outside.
Hostel sold as hotel apartments. -Never going back!
Christian_Frbon 02/09/2015 15:20My fiance and I stayed four nights at the James Craig Court during the tattoo in august 2015.
We booked through Expedia which had a great description and great pictures of the place.
Let me start by making one thin clear: It is NOT a hotel. It is a dormatory/hostel. This is clearly stated on their own website, but Expedia sells it as at hotel, with pictures of big spacious rooms with tv's, pillows, flowers and blankets. THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING other than a bed and a desk in the rooms. It resembles a prison cell. I kid you not and i have pictures to prove it.
Room size: The room was the size of a prison cell ( 160x 400)with just enough room to go around the ridiculously small bed.
Bed: 120 x 200 is not a double bed. It is a large one person bed.
Curtains: The curtain does in no way block the sunlight, so every morning we were woken at around 7am, with sharp sunlight in our faces.
Bathroom: Very small. No hand soap. Shower was so small I could hardly wash my har, cause my arms banged against the wall. No shelf to place shampoo so you had to put it on the floor, which would not be a problem if one could bend down and reach it. That was impossible. You had to squat looking up or you would bang your head on the walls.
Hot water: Every time we showered we got shocks of cold water. Prbably from other guests using their showers.
Noise: The walls are paper thin. You could hear the neighbours fart and follow their conversation.
Noise: The window and the door in the room did not shut properly and made clanking noises all night, due to the draft.
Lift: Didn't work during the whole stay. Me and my 4 months pregnant fiance had to walk to the 4th floor several times a day.
Facilities: The Expedia webpage says that the rooms have a fridge. Not true!
There was a shared kitchen.
Only good thing about this place was the location.
Blood Stains on Bedroom Wall
Jameslaughlinon 02/09/2015 03:04My wife and I checked out photos of James Craig Court and it looked fine for a one night stay. Edinburgh was very busy with the fringe festival so getting our usual spot was impossible.
Anyways - we checked in and had a terrible experience from the start.
We ended up checking out after 20 mins once we discovered blood stains on the bedroom wall. Totally disgusting and unacceptable. The room also looked nothing like the photos.
We were assured management would call us the next day and discuss a refund if in fact there was blood stains on the wall. Nobody called. I called and was told someone would call me back. Nothing! I also emailed and messages the HQ for Mansion - but no response. I did not want to post this review and gave them one whole month to contact me. I didn't get a refund (or even hear back from them!) and I think it's only fair to let you all know that this place is simply disgusting. The stains had been there for a LONG time - it wasn't recently done - says a lot about the hygiene.