Property: Mercure Edinburgh Princes St
Room booked: "Privilege" room with view of castle
Status: platinum
Room upgraded/type: no
Rate: flexible
Free internet: Yes
Welcome drink: Yes 1 drink voucher and 2 small glass bottles of water
Early check in: yes at 12.30pm but only when I said I would sit in the lobby and sleep until they got me a room because I was just off a 32 hour journey
VIP treatment: no
Access to executive lounge (if existing): no lounge
Reading what
@RooFlyer got in his room in Sydney makes me well jell
Nothing like that at this property!
The views from the room were lovely. Princes St is very noisy with traffic during the day. There are some loose metal plates in the road (permanent feature) and every time a heavy vehicle goes over them there is a loud double clunk. I mean really loud. Luckily much less traffic at night so it didn't keep me awake.
It is an older building that used to be called the Mountroyal Hotel which is still carved in stone on the facade. My room was on the 6th floor (of 7). It was stiflingly hot and I couldn't work out where from as the radiator did not seem to be on. Also outside it was 10 degrees or less yet I found myself opening the window and 'balcony' door just for fresh air to get the temperature down but that increased the noise level significantly. It's not really a balcony but a narrow space running across the front of 5 rooms where you can stand outside and look at the views. Equally you could take a look in at the occupants of the other rooms if you chose to. Anyway if a north facing view made the room this hot in April I hate to think what July would be like. There was no aircon but a small fan in the room.
The bathroom was I would say 1980s with one of those irritating noisy fans connected to the light switch that keeps on whirring for ages after you turn the light off. A narrow shub, with affectionate shower curtain and quite a step up to get in, with this lovely gleaming handrail right where you would expect - only watch out, it's not a handrail it's a superheated towel rail
Keeping the bathroom door shut kept the room temp down quite a lot! But I wonder how many people burn themselves. A lot I would not be surprised.
The restaurant wasn't too bad, with lovely staff and views, but the sort of food that made you suspect that the 'chef' had defrosted and plated a microwave ready meal. If I hadn't had terrible jet lag I would have found somewhere better to eat. There's a really nice little place called Society up the Calton Hill end of Princes St but they're not open for dinners atm, only breakfast and lunch.
There's a sign in the room that says put this on the door if you don't want your room cleaned and we will give you 100 points per day. I didn't put the sign on the door, and I still didn't get my room cleaned. Then on my last day I took my larger bag down to reception for them to keep it during the day and went back to the room for a final freshen up only to find housekeeping already in there as if I'd checked out! Despite the fact that I'd left stuff all over the bed!
No fridge or minibar in the room, but there were robes and slippers. The bed was comfortable.
Would I stay again - well probably not unless there was nowhere else suitable. There's an Indigo further down Princes St that I might try next time, or the Radisson over in the Old Town. (Have stayed at Hilton before when I was diamond and was peeved by the tiny cupboard they gave me to sleep in).
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