Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa

If you're like me and read all the reviews before a stay this will be the only review you need. We booked a one night stay-cation just this weekend. Firstly the spa is great and for £45pp you get a lot like 5 saunas and a fun indoor/oudoor pool. If you enter from the 5th floor you need to go down the stairs to the spa reception for a key fob and then re-trace your steps, change and follow signs past the "commoners" pool (this is the pool/sauna included in the room rate). Looked nice, didnt test it. The fancy spa (a.k.a thermal experience) was quiet when we arrived at 5pm but gradually turned into couples hot spot kinda thing. By 7.30pm it was real honeymoon extravaganza vibes with the pool full of intertwined people seasoned with the occasional business man shouting about Audis in the rock sauna. My top tip: go soon rather than later. My top tip number two: do not be the numptie who takes their phone in because the likelihood of somebody knicking your dressing gown with your precious iphone in the pocket is near 99% (to be fair it made for great entertainment following that whole thing unfold) But honestly, take a break and leave your phone in the locker. If you cant do this, this really isnt the place for you. We stayed in the basic room without the view. True fact: the offices are accross. Not so true: they are right there in your face. But if seeing a building/parking lot/wall is an issue for you in a city centre hotel maybe pay for the castle view and do not suffer? We were super excited about the glass cube toilet situation we'd read so much about. Was it so much drama? Well yes, they look cool but also yes, you can hear everything. This could simply be amended by changing the toilet glass door to an actual door (if you get me Sheraton wink wink) But yes, if you need to go and feel shy about it it will require a bit of a "meet you downstairs in 10min ok?" kinda action. The room was spotless when we arrived and had decent coffee and I will give extra points for the mismatching wine glasses - made me laugh! Air con worked like magic and you can also open the window, win win. We also booked breakfast after reading about the notoriously bad machine coffee and upsetting buffet style set up. Get this; the buffet was great. There was yoghurt, fruit, nice bread, tiny croissants, cheese, ham and every sauce you can imagine. Then there is a menu you can order from like full Scottish or pancakes or poached eggs... it was great. The machine coffee? Oh my... it really was something else. Not sure why or how but... the rumours are true. It was not good. BUT they actually offer to make nice barista coffees so stick to that and it'll be a nice morning. The staff thru out our stay were nice, helpful and professional and we had a great time. There is some (probably unintentional) madmen-vibes to this hotel but again, made me smile. It's a fun hotel with great spa and breakfast. You get what you pay for and we left very happy and content.

My wife and I stayed for two nights The hotel is comfortable and clean. The spa is excellent The Quality of the room was good very clean. The club lounge was nice what spoiled it was an area where people were on phones and laptops you could hear them conducting their business which nobody wants to hear when on a relaxing break. When you sit down in the club lounge you are given a small ramekin dish of olives and a hand full of plain crisps between two unlike other hotel club lounge when that was done that was it. The canapés that were served at 5 am were very good. The breakfast that my wife and I had on the first morning in the restaurant was egg Benedict which was very bland the hollandaise sauce was tasteless as was the muffins. The following morning my wife had scrambled eggs on toast which is hard to get wrong unfortunately I had the worst full breakfast I have had in any hotel The one mushroom was dried out as was the cherry tomato and the watch face size of fruit pudding!! The one sausage was very average and over heated as well the two rashers of bacon were very fatty but worse to come was the two almost raw eggs that was swimming on my plate. I did complain and the staff agreed with me that it was not up to standard Then why was it served to me!!

Overall I would say this is a great hotel and I would recommend it. As a platinum bonvoy member, the benefits of the lounge were excellent, which breakfast and hors d'oeuvres served daily. The housekeeping was excellent. The rooms were cleaned promptly every morning and turn down service was provided every evening for us. We stayed at a castle suite, however the view is of the newer side of the castle so be aware this isn't your classic Edinburgh castle view. Still lovely though. Our biggest hiccup occurred unfortunately on our last night. At 12:30am we were woken up by the fire alarm and every had to exit outside of the building and wait for about 15-20 minutes. I understand this is not the hotel's fault and safety is a priority, however, what most upset me was the complete lack of communication on the part of the hotel. The only reason we knew we had to exit and then were allowed to return was because we were following the masses. I saw not one person of authority representing the hotel communicating with us what was going on. When we asked someone standing off to the side, they simply said there was an incident in one of the rooms. Not very reassuring and it took me hours to get back to sleep as I was slightly worried the remainder of the night. Besides that the hotel was a pleasant stay in a great location.

Two of us spent 5 nights here while visiting Edinburgh. We've stayed before (two years ago same time of year) and it was a great stay yet again. Check in was easy and quick, the room with a castle view was brilliant. Amazing view of the castle day and night. The room was spotless and the bed was huge! The room cleaners did a great job while we were there. The food we had at the hotel (breakfast and bar meals for one day) was great. When we stayed last time it was a buffet breakfast and I think we preferred that as it gave us more choice however there was nothing wrong with the breakfast really. We were served several times by Jordan and she was great, happy to chat and friendly. Overall we had a great stay and can't wait to come back again. The location of the hotel is excellent, go straight out of the hotel to find your way to the old town or left to find yourself by princess street and into the new town. Lots of nice pubs and quick places to eat right by the hotel as well. O and the bar is excellent offering lots of tasty food and drinks. Finally we also visited the spa for the 3 hour spa circuit on one day and while the pool was shut everything else was open.it was amazing lying in the hydro pool enjoying the sun. Great hotel

Firstly for the price and five star rating I expected better. The view was awful in an internal room with a view of a roof top (see pic). Rooms are spacious and clean and the beds are comfortable and big (super king size) we were in a deluxe double. That’s where the good ends. There are no charge points for USB or USB-C as is pretty standard in hotels at this price point these days. The large Samsung TV is not connected to the internet (or certainly wasn’t in our room) so screen casting or mirroring was not available and there were no Apps available on the TV so had to use IPad to watch Netflix in the evening. Travelling with my son we looked forward to using the pool in the evening after a day out in Edinburgh- be warned- I had not read the separate child swim times and only seen pool open till 10pm however children are only allowed in the pool for an hour in the morning (08:30-09:30) and an hour in the evening (on Sat/Sun 2 hours 3-5). We were told children were only allowed in the mornings by very unfriendly spa staff. I had also chosen this hotel due to location, parking and advertised EV charging - upon arrival the EV charge point was out of order (there is only 1 for non Tesla cars and 1 Tesla charge point for Tesla only). Overall totally underwhelmed for a hotel in this price point. The cleaning staff also left a dirty pink cloth in our room after servicing it in the morning, to he bath tub was chipped and the toiletries were the refillable kind you get in a Premier Inn all be it a slightly higher standard, but still. Not what I would expect for a 5 * hotel.