The Scholar

“A luxury, affordable hotel”

We picked this superb hotel for its location under Arthur's Seat around Hollyrood Park. It is in the university complex but a quiet, peaceful location with a gate so feels safe. On arrival at reception, I realised I'd left my handbag in the taxi! Staff instantly rang my phone to alert the driver &… more

We picked this superb hotel for its location under Arthur's Seat around Hollyrood Park. It is in the university complex but a quiet, peaceful location with a gate so feels safe. On arrival at reception, I realised I'd left my handbag in the taxi! Staff instantly rang my phone to alert the driver & rang the two black city taxi companies & he had returned with my bag in 5 minutes! All staff were polite, friendly & helpful & it was well staffed. Nothing was too much trouble & they would always ring a taxi for you which arrived in minutes or let us know about bus no.30 & trams & attractions. Breakfast fab, the evening menu looked very good but we ate out due to our itinerary. Our room was luxury! All carpets were either freshly cleaned or new. Lovely big room & bathroom. A bit hot the first night until I realised you could turn the radiators right down & open windows! Great shower, fab coffee machine which we struggled to work but they sent someone up within minutes to show us & gave us extra pods & milk. Slept like a log! Bed huge with Soft pillows. We wil be back!

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“My new Scottish abode!”

A lovely place to stay, situated below Arthur's Seat within the University of Edinburgh. The hotel was once student accomodation, but has been converted to a quite elegant and comfortable Hotel. The family room we were in was spacious, well equipped and had one of the best bathrooms I've had the pl… more

A lovely place to stay, situated below Arthur's Seat within the University of Edinburgh. The hotel was once student accomodation, but has been converted to a quite elegant and comfortable Hotel. The family room we were in was spacious, well equipped and had one of the best bathrooms I've had the pleasure of showering in. The coffee machine was very welcome and worked well. A nice, clean and modern room. The resturant evening menu was quite limited and to be honest, we mostly ate out, but the breakfast was good quality and had a good selection to cater for most tastes. The staff were all very friendly and helpful, a credit to the hotel. Not the cheapest option, but in my opinion, worth the price.

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“Three night stay”

Lovely room, very pleasant staff, great to sit out in the garden as it was so sunny, excellent guitarist / folk singer in the bar, very good breakfast. But the dinners were a big disappointment with the same menu every night and mostly down-market options like burgers. We chose to dine elsewhere!

“Few 'niggly' aspects of our stay but would definitely stay here again”

ALTHOUGH A RATHER LENGTHY REVIEW THERE ARE CERTAIN ASPECTS (NOT ALL HOTEL RELATED) WHICH I WOULD SUGGEST YOU READ. ESPECIALLY MODES OF TRANSPORTATION. WISH SOMEONE HAD MENTIONED THIS IN THEIR REVIEWS. I would like to say that every single member of staff we encountered were pleasant and profession… more

ALTHOUGH A RATHER LENGTHY REVIEW THERE ARE CERTAIN ASPECTS (NOT ALL HOTEL RELATED) WHICH I WOULD SUGGEST YOU READ. ESPECIALLY MODES OF TRANSPORTATION. WISH SOMEONE HAD MENTIONED THIS IN THEIR REVIEWS. I would like to say that every single member of staff we encountered were pleasant and professional, especially the staff on the reception desk. All my comments below would not deter me from staying here again and really and truly are niggles which could easily be rectified. Beds were extremely comfortable and it was a good size room. Which really for a short stay is for myself a big plus. Would have liked some blinds or some sort of privacy at the windows. Also a fridge would have been nice but didn't spoil our stay. An iron and ironing board is in the room and that was a big bonus for me. Breakfast was adequate. Please note you will need to ask if you require anything other than scrambled egg. There is no note of this on the tables and we were not informed of this by our server. Should you require breakfast I would suggest you book this prior to checking in as I believe it is £15.00 per night per person (do apologise if I am incorrect on pricing). One big thing that let the hotel down (but was not a problem to us) was the so called Brasserie and bar. I expected to have much more choice and a varied menu each day didn't seem to change much during our stay. The bar itself was I am afraid very disappointing although the staff were fantastic and must be very frustrating for them. There is a board up displaying "ask for recommendations for cocktails". We were told they could make any cocktail but this is not the case as certain ingredients were missing. There was a list on the drinks menu that were special summer drinks. I wanted the afagato which had supposedly a butterscotch twist but this was not available. Even silly things like crisps behind the bar were not readily available. Make sure you look into other transportation than taxis. We found them relatively expensive but the most frustrating thing was that although an outward journey from the hotel could be booked the return journey cannot. We went to a fringe show and a lot of the taxis were pre-booked and cannot be hailed. How you pre-book is a mystery as this was not possible. We ended up, two woman alone having difficulty getting a cab to the hotel at gone 12.00 midnight. I can understand with the Tattoo to a certain degree but that was a big 'free for all' and would have been so much easier if that also could have been pre-booked. All in all would definitely stay here again thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Edinburgh.. LASTLY BRING WARM CLOTHES AS. ON MANY OCCASIONS (ESPECIALLY AT THE TATTOO) WE WERE FREEZING COLD AND THIS WAS IN AUGUST!!!

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