The Caledonian Edinburgh, Curio Collection by Hilton

Stayed here on a visit to Scotland. Was a very nice hotel with a great view of the Castle! Staff was very friendly. Sean Connery and Charlie Chaplin stayed at this hotel, amongst other famous people. Was a great place to stay that fits the charm of the country.

Very lovely atmosphere. Service was great by Tahlia and lukaz

I post this review as a caution to any travel agents or travelers expecting an experience above and beyond. After staying two nights with my group of 48 persons, and a total bill of over $28,000 for our two-night stay, the hotel refused to pay commission. It was quoted in the offer, but somewhere along the way, they simply decided they would not pay the commission, and never advised nor informed me. After a hassle and investigating legal parameters, they finally agreed, but deducted some items that were included. Though breakfast was included in our rate, they would not include any ordered items at the table. Also be aware that you may book a King room, for example, but it is the basic room, with obscured glass, on a low level, looking into the alley. There is a special tier of room for every scenario, and they charge for those: a King with a full window, a King with a view of the castle, a Premium King, a Superior King, a King Deluxe, etc. So the commission was small. It seems the days of customer service, and appreciation for a client spending thousands is not what it used to be. The personnel that booked the reservation, as well as the general manager gave no response to repeated requests. A replacement contact was given who was difficult, and unaccommodating. Just a warning that this happened to me, and could happen to you.

This hotel is pretty nice but not as good as it was a few years ago when it was a Waldorf. It is very expensive but not much more so than other good Edinburgh hotels in August. The deep tub in an "accessible" room is a mystery, but it didn't matter to me since I didn't need or want an accessible room. The one thing people should know is you need to beware of free upgrades to a castle view room. The "upgraded" castle view king premiere room they gave us was so small I couldn't deal with it, so I asked them to downgrade us back to the regular king premiere I had reserved. I guess the accessible room was all they had left. Although it isn't ideal, it's substantially larger and nicer than the room with a view, so we are content.

We were very much looking forward to our stay but were soon left feeing extremely disappointed. A warm greeting on arrival and allocated room 342. The room, spacious and characterful, had an adjoining door to the room next door which caused us concern because of the potential lack of privacy. Four nights at five hundred pounds a night it's not a lot to ask. Opened the fridge and, to our horror, discovered a half eaten sandwich inside. Removed the sandwich from the fridge (using tissues from the bathroom) and returned to reception with it. Spoke to Isaac who didn't seem as repulsed by it as we were. He gave my husband and I an unenthusiastic apology (which appeared to be rehearsed) and told us he would pass our comments onto management before dropping the sandwich in a bin next to him. He did, however, offer to have the fridge and room cleaned which seemed to us to be pointless as it was too late to prevent the problem or undo what had already occurred and the offence caused. We had given our ETA as 18:00 hrs so housekeeping had ample time to clean and prepare the room. If the mini-bar had been stocked, which is (in our experience) standard for a five star hotel, the sandwich wouldn't have been there. On our return that evening - the hotel is a little too far out from the heart of everything to pop back two or three times a day - we found our room had had the turn-down service so presumably had been cleaned. This was the only evening we received the turn-down service. Our first morning's breakfast wasn't an enjoyable experience because my husband received a severe reprimand from a rude and aggressive woman managing the breakfast room. Unable to locate a particular item on the buffet, and whilst asking our server for it (who happened to be passing at that moment) she shouted "You have to ask your server!" He told her he was. This unpleasant episode left us feeling unvalued and disrespected as paying hotel guests. Turns out there was in fact a family in the adjoining room with at least one noisy young child so no privacy for us. On the last day our stay, our displeasure (taken-up by Julie) was addressed. She was very understanding and sympathetic and left a handwritten note in our room assuring us we were valued and respected which I thought was very kind. As a goodwill gesture she refunded half of one nights stay. A nice gesture, however, this didn't make-up for our ruined stay. If all of this (above) had not taken place we probably wouldn't have spent a lot of time in the hotel anyhow because the bar didn't have anyone in it thereby not making it a desirable place to be. We spent our time enjoying the fare and ambience at The Balmoral (five star hotel), which we love, and where we be returning for our next visit to Edinburgh.