The Caledonian Edinburgh, Curio Collection by Hilton

We checked into the Caledonian last minute because our usual hotel in Edinburgh City centre was all booked. I was curious about the Heritage property and was interested in seeing how it had been preserved. On that front, I was charmed. It is a beautiful building. And after the huge fire that destroyed the original railway station, it is fascinating to see how the structural integrity has been preserved all while converting it into a modern hotel. The Caledonian is now itself a historical landmark in the city, and houses many historical mementos. Walking through its corridors is much like exploring the galleries in a museum. Wonderful trip down the annals of history. The rooms are comfortably furnished. We asked for a quiet room as we had to take a transcontinental flight after a couple of days and sleep was a priority. A quiet room was duly provided and we were told at check-in that it was on the side of the hotel away from the pubs. We appreciated the hospitality on that front. The hotel was a Waldorf Astoria a few years back and the furnishing and the fixtures in the rooms and bathrooms easily reflect that. They are tastefully done and are of a much higher aesthetic grade than what you would normally expect at a Hilton. The beds are comfortable and the pillows are of good quality. I was a tad surprised to see my first empty minibar in an Edinburgh hotel. I verified with reception if it is standard practice and they confirmed that it was. We were out walking most of the time and had a comfortable night’s sleep at the end of our days there. But the Caledonian is probably not a hotel I would go back to any time soon. The only reason for that is the service. From our room, every time we needed to dial the reception or the concierge, it took at least 5 tries. Inevitably, the phone would keep ringing and nobody would call back either. It took me 25 minutes and seven attempts at calling somebody to have someone bring over an ice bucket to our room. The same happened the next night when I couldn’t get a TV feature to work and I wanted to request that somebody be sent up to the room. Not only did nobody come for almost an hour, when they came, they were unable to help us. The same happened when I wanted to report a broken towel warmer in the bathroom. Upon complaining, we were offered breakfast in the morning which we had not included in our original reservation. While we welcome the gesture, a free breakfast is not what we were looking for. ( the breakfast buffet was rather underwhelming anyway, as we discovered the next morning. It has a bit of everything but nothing to write home about. The staff at the restaurant or attentive and well trained. The food wasn’t exceptional in any way and the coffee was downright terrible) We would much rather have appreciated somebody readily available at the reception, each time that we had to contact them for a question or a request. At checkout, in the morning it took us 20 minutes to just get through to reception from the room. One of us finally had to go downstairs to call a bellhop to help us move our luggage to the lobby. The corridors are long and just walking down to the reception from our room took no less than 5 to 7 minutes each way. It is an inconvenience that one doesn’t factor in while staying at a hotel of that standard: one doesn’t expect that nobody from reception will pick up the phone. I did mention my grievance at checkout and was told that they had a long line of people waiting to be attended to. I have no doubt that this might have been the case, but every hotel has customers waiting to be attended to, they usually have someone to answer the phone also. The Caledonian seemed to have a staff shortage. Maybe this is something they need to look into. For future trips to Edinburgh, the Caledonian will certainly not be our first choice.

We had a lovely stay at the Calendonian. The location was perfect - easy walking to so much of Edinburgh. The staff could not be more lovely and helpful. Great care is taken of every detail. Want to give a special shout out to Amy, at the front desk, who went above and beyond to help us out with our rooms. She provided excellent service and follow-up and made our stay so special. Thank you, Amy!!

Good location, nice atmosphere, and fraudulent billing. I stayed here for a week in July 2026. The location is convenient. The hotel was nice--spacious rooms, friendly staff. I ate dinner at The Court twice. I ordered a glass of wine which was forgotten. There was no staff available to flag down. I had a chance to ask about it when my food was brought 30 minutes after seating and they were very apologetic and did not charge me for it. The second time I had dinner there I ordered a drink (which was not forgotten), but still took 20 minutes to arrive. The first night of my stay we had to evacuate around 11:30 PM when the fire alarms went off and safety services conducted an inspection. This happened again a few days later, although was a shorter evacuation and thankfully during daylight hours. More than two weeks after my stay I noticed a credit card charge of nearly $3000. I immediately called the hotel and after some investigation, a staff member informed me that although I had booked on points, the points used were refunded to my account, and I was charged the cash price. I pointed out that 1) I never authorized this, 2) I had a finalized bill two weeks earlier that did not indicate this and 3) I wasn't refunded the points anyway. The staff member was very polite and I appreciated him looking into it. He forwarded it to a manager, since it appeared to be an error, and I am awaiting a resolution. Overall, while the hotel is aesthetically appealing and everyone was very friendly, I am unable to recommend it. I think any one of these experiences would have been a completely understandable error, but in summation this is not what I expect from a five star hotel. The billing issue required a considerable amount of time and on my part, and is stressful.

Stayed at the Caledonian for my wedding weekend and the staff were just incredible ! The hotel is just stunning ! Our room overlooked Edinburgh Castle and it was just magical! The staff including Catherine Frasier, Ria Anne Lucas Herald, and Yannic Grawitter really stepped up to help us with some special requests for our wedding party ! The bell staff were great getting all our wedding and luggage sorted in our room. And the restaurant and bar staff were top notch ! I would highly recommend staying at the Caledonian should your travels take you to Edinburgh !

Some friends and I visited the Caledonian for afternoon drinks. The servers and staff, including Leah, Tegan, Tahlia, Heather and Lucy were all fantastic. The drinks and nibbles were delicious and the atmosphere was very pleasant.