The Grassmarket Hotel is the perfect choice for work and play, and is centrally located moments from the best attractions Edinburgh has to offer including Edinburgh Castle and the historic Royal Mile. If you like to unwind after a hard day in quirky stylish surroundings, you won’t be disappointed. Our designs bring a distinctive and fresh flavour to the Edinburgh hotel market whilst incorporating traditional Scottish twists, with a few surprises along the way! The hotel has guestrooms, ranging from cosy (single room), comfy (standard twin/double) and comfy plus (triple or 4 singles) all complete with rainfall style showers. Can’t cope without your iPod? Pop it in our dock & kick back in sound proofed rooms. Each bedroom has a large flat screen plasma TV. Oh and if that wasn’t enough to keep you occupied, we also have free Wi-Fi. New to the city? All rooms have wall sized magnetic map that will point you in the right direction and air conditioning as standard.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
Quirky Hotels
Trendy
Languages Spoken
English
Location
139 Cowgate, Edinburgh EH1 2JR Scotland
Grassmarket Hotel
2,940 reviews
Getting there
Great for walkers
Places to stay are graded on a 0-100 scale. The higher the grade, the easier it is for travellers to find restaurants and things to do within walking distance.
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The Grassmarket Hotel has received a spectrum of feedback, with guests celebrating its prime location amidst local attractions and the vibrant atmosphere of the surrounding square, which features nightly music. While the cleanliness and helpful staff have been praised, some visitors have expressed dissatisfaction with room sizes and occasional noise disturbances.
Opinions on the hotel's value for money are divided; some reviewers feel it is reasonable, whereas others find the room amenities lacking for the price paid.
Location
Convenient
Atmosphere
Lively
Rooms
Cramped
Value
Reasonable
Cleanliness
Mixed
Service
Friendly
Amenities
Satisfactory
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The hotel is run staffed by lovely, friendly people. Rooms are decorated in a modern style and are on the small side but very comfortable. Everything you would possibly need is there, including tea and coffee facilities, toiletries, towels, a tv and WiFi and lots of leaflets/books detailing things to do in and around Edinburgh. There is a bus stop where the City Sightseeing bus stops just a minutes walk down the street and you are situated maybe a 10/15 minute walk from the Castle. Edinburgh Waverley station is a 20 minute walk away (or a £3.50 Uber ride). Breakfast in the bar next door has everything you could possible want, along with more friendly and helpful staff. The hotel reception is 24 hours in case you need anything in the early hours and beds are comfortable and spotlessly clean. The room rate is very reasonable considering the location of the hotel and the quality of the facilities. I would 100% recommend staying here and will be returning myself!
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Date of stay: March 2020Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from 64manager, Manager at Grassmarket Hotel
Responded Mar 14, 2020
Hi Jacqueline, Thank you for taking the time to leave us such a great review- both myself and the team are delighted to hear you enjoyed your stay with us so much. We're glad to hear all the wee touches made your visit extra special, and we'll pass your lovely comments about breakfast onto the team at Biddy Mulligans as well. We hope we can welcome you back for another enjoyable break soon, if so please give us a call on 0130 220 2299 for the best returning rates! Best wishes, Shelly & the Grassmarket Team
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Liked · Quirky old hotel with lots of charm, mostly from the styling, which in our room included The Dandy wallpaper and another wall with a giant street map of the local area and magnetic stickers to help plan your visits. Really well placed in the centre of tge Old Town near lots of great restaurants and places to visit. Nice big super king bed, roomy shower with rain shower head, loved the Tunnocks tea cakes provided each day (not just arrival day). Because the pub next doors is also owned, 10% off all food there (great pub, with entertainment every night, by the way). Also liked the bluetooth speaker system in the room. Disliked · Room a little cool, even with heating at max. Our room on second floor at the front, took almost 5 minutes with the hot tap and shower running to get hot water coming through. Just be a laundry nearby as we could hear washing machine and tumble dryers late into the night and very early in the morning. Not all TV channels worked, even BBC2 missing; although smart tv, not Wi-Fi connected so couldn't get catch up tv, don't see why not.
We would definitely stay here again.
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Date of stay: January 2020Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from 64manager, Manager at Grassmarket Hotel
Responded Jan 10, 2020
Hi D4560YZanderewg, Thank you for taking the time to review your recent stay. Our team are so pleased to know that you loved our unique design, especially the magnetic wall maps which are perfect for planning your visit. It's great to hear that you also enjoyed our comfy beds and the complimentary extras like the Tunnocks teacakes and the discounts in Biddy Mulligans! Your comments regarding the heating and water will certainly be investigated, our 24 hour reception team are always on hand to help with issues like this. We are delighted that you plan on returning, remember to give us a call on 0131 220 2299 or visit our website for the best rates. Christie & The Grassmarket Hotel Team
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Just back from a wonderful long weekend at The Grassmarket Hotel.
We had an amazing time, the Staff are all very friendly & helpful, nothing is to much trouble. Check-in went very smooth, because of Covid regulations masks are worn throughout the hotel. The Card Key & pens were all wiped down with Sanitizer before being handed over. The Hotel is Querky & spotlessly clean. We had a double Comfy Room, it was perfect, the bed was very comfortable, there is plenty of room & storage space. A kettle is provided with tea & coffee supplied and a bottle of Prosecco on arrival ( it was appreciated after our travels ) The bathroom is large with a rainfall shower & always plenty of warm water. Shower Gel & Shampoo is also provided along with a hairdryer. You can book breakfast via the hotel in Biddy Mulligans which adjoins the hotel or pay as you go. We also ate dinner there one night which was good.
The Hotel is in a perfect position for Exploring Edinburgh, It sits right below the back of the Castle, and you can take a lovely walk down The Royal Mile past St. Giles to Holyrood House. Princess Street & the shops in The New Town are also walking distance.
There are lots of bars & restaurants beside the hotel with an outside area perfect for people watching & a cold beer in the afternoon sun. I would recommend at the minute because of Covid you use the apps to book tables as walk-ins are seldom available.
I look forward to visiting Edinburgh & The Grassmarket Hotel again very soon
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Date of stay: July 2021
Value
Location
Service
Room Tip:Comfy Rooms are larger
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Response from Manager Edinburgh, General Manager at Grassmarket Hotel
Responded Nov 21, 2021
Dear Guest, Thank you very much for your candid review of your recent stay at our hotel. Your feedback is extremely valuable to us, as we strive to improve with each stay. I greatly appreciate your comments. I’m looking forward to having you again as a guest in our hotel. Best regards, Carla & The Grassmarket Hotel Team
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We don't nearly get away often enough to have an authorative opinion on hotels and what constitutes good value for money. We stayed for two nights and have no complaints. Tannoy ceiling speakers, with wall mounted connection for Android and Apple. The USB power sockets deliver power very slowly but at least they are there. The hotel blurb makes a big thing about rainfall shower but that is really just a way of saying its a fixed head and that is most definitely not to everybodys liking. Staff are fantastic. Towels, extra tea/coffee, cold water nothing seem to bother or phase them. Check in and out very easy. The breakfast service is understaffed and food takes a while to get to you and isn't hottest. Beds very comfy. There's a great deal of thought gone into the rooms and the clientele. But if you have mobility issues or poor health be aware that getting to Princes Street and Castle, Royal Mile etc if on foot is arduous trek up 174 stairs in the case of the Castle and a very steep hill if heading to Royal Mile via Grassmarket. It is very centrally located. The discounted car parking a necessity for staycationers like ourselves. We'd happily return to this hotel, its well run, well appointed, centrally located and the staff are brilliant.
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Date of stay: September 2021
Rooms
Service
Sleep Quality
Room Tip:Ask the staff there bound to tell you which room would serve your needs best
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Manager Edinburgh, General Manager at Grassmarket Hotel
Responded Oct 15, 2021
Hi Louise, I appreciate your positive feedback about our hotel. We do take pride in catering to our guests’ needs the best way we can. If you’re travelling to our area again soon, don’t hesitate to book with us. Best regards,
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Great location for a break away, close enough to the train station and all the must see sights, this fun and quirky hotel is well worth booking into. The welcome is warm and friendly from the staff and the rooms are so well designed with the fun wallpaper but also plenty of extra features like plenty of tea, water & of course Tunnocks Teacakes. The rooms are spotlessly clean and the shower was hot and powerful, just what a weary tourist needs. The only minus was that all four pillows in our room were very lumpy due to the filling matting together, but we would still book there again. Breakfast was plentiful with a wide choice of options so what's not to like !
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Date of stay: February 2020
Value
Rooms
Service
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Response from 64manager, Manager at Grassmarket Hotel
Responded Feb 28, 2020
Hi Valley_Girl Thank you for your fantastic review. We are delighted that you loved our central location, loved our friendly staff and funky rooms. I am sorry you didn`t enjoy the pillows in the room, we will certainly look into this and improve the quality where needed. Hopefully we can welcome you back very soon for another top stay, please call us direct on 01312202299 for the best returners rates! Inese&The Grassmarket Hotel Team
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We picked the Grassmarket for location and offering of a triple room, 3 separate beds, and were not disappointed. Friendly, efficient, knowledgeable, competent reception staff working in such a compact ground floor space - kudos! They safely stored our Day 2 covid test kits and had them ready on our arrival and then helped us locate the necessary priority Royal Mail post box on the Cowgate to mail the results, stored our luggage while we took an out of town tour for several days, and preordered a crack of dawn taxi to get us back to the airport on our last day in the city. Room was clean, bright, spacious, lots of after hours street noise but to be expected in Grassmarket. Steps from varieties of pubs, including a walk through to Biddy Mulligan's next door, and just a couple blocks walk to the Royal Mile. Elevator access to the floors with another few stairs to get to the room, but doable. Lots of towels and toiletries provided. Thumbs up Grassmarket!
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Date of stay: September 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Manager Edinburgh, General Manager at Grassmarket Hotel
Responded Oct 15, 2021
Dear Guest, Thank you for giving us a perfect rating. I’m sure our entire hotel staff enjoyed catering to your needs as much as you enjoyed your stay. I’m looking forward to having you again as a guest in our hotel. Kind regards,
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This hotel is in a great location but there’s a few things that would put me off staying here again. Firstly I was not told about their housekeeping policy that if you want your room cleaned you had to put a door hanger out so on the first day our room did not get cleaned. To be fair to the receptionist she could not of apologised enough and did bring us some fresh towels. Another issue was that I noticed when the room did get cleaned on the second day the bedding was not changed. This perhaps is their policy but I’m used to staying in hotels that change bedding on a daily basis and it wasn’t nice coming back to a room with dirty bedding. The room we stayed in (303) was also extremely small and was a bit of a hassle to get to. If you are staying and having any mobility issues make sure you let them know as our room wasn’t accessible by lift. The room did have a great shower but overall the room was showing some signs of wear and tear, see pictures. The window was really old and I struggled to open it and the bathroom was showing mould. There’s a great CIF anti mould spray that would clean that up great if you see this. The one thing that earns the hotel more points is the staff. As I said previously the receptionist was so apologetic about the housekeeping mix up and all the other staff were so helpful and friendly. A shoutout to the man working night shift that helped me source a phone charger. If you’re just looking for something pretty basic and in a great central old town location then this would be ideal.
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Date of stay: March 2022Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip:Some rooms noisy from bar downstairs, not great for wheelchairs or prams
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Manager Edinburgh, General Manager at Grassmarket Hotel
Responded Apr 1, 2022
Dear clairebP4879KY, Thank you for taking the time to review us, I am sorry to see housekeeping make a mistake to service your room, i have raised this with the team so this doesnt happen again. We do all hope to see you again Kind regards
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In terms of location the hotel is absolutely perfect with it being situated right in the heart of the historic old town with all the quaint cobbled streets and beautiful historic buildings. The room was clean with nice decor but a little small, not ideal for 2. Maybe more suited to single occupancy. ventilation was non existent and the window in the room sealed shut. It was far too hot. spoke to staff and they organised a fan which helped a little. Asked to swap room but fully booked. staff friendly and welcoming. A little overpriced and I think the room needs to sort out the ventilation system & allow the window to be utilised. Especially considering i am an asthmatic also.
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Date of stay: August 2020
Rooms
Service
Sleep Quality
Room Tip:avoid room 212
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Manager Edinburgh, General Manager at Grassmarket Hotel
Responded Sep 6, 2020
Hi Dale24790 Thank you for your feedback. We are glad to hear that you loved our central location in this beautiful historic location. It is equally lovely to hear that you fount the room to be clean and staff friendly. I am saddened to hear that you experienced issues with the ventilation in your room and we were not able to swap the room for you, hopefully our friendly and helpful staff helped you during this situation. We will be sure to investigate this issue. Hopefully we can welcome you back for another stay with us and make it a great one , please call us direct on 01312202299 next time you are in town for the best returners rates. Inese&The Grassmarket Hotel Team
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We stayed in this hotel at the start of January 2020 and we we highly disappointed only good things were location and breakfast. We were offered a very small room really cramped only access to double bed on one side and walls around it we asked for an update and we were given one after paying extra. The next morning I discovered a bed bug on the wall behind the bed above our heads and in the evening time I found one in the bed itself on my pillow also there was blood stains on it. The room was really dusty. We decided to leave the hotel to one of the properties across the road and it was fab at similar price range! Our room was not even fully refunded for the night we didn't stay. I wanted to warn people not to stay there if you like clean place because it is not a clean hotel and standard for the money was really poor. I also reviewed this hotel on the website we booked through but my review wasn't posted!!! Shame on them as I will never again book anything based on their reviews. They obviously only post good reviews. It's not fair on anyone to be put in the situation we were in as it really spoiled our break in Edinbrugh which is an amazing city to visit!
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Date of stay: January 2020
Rooms
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from 64manager, Manager at Grassmarket Hotel
Responded Jan 26, 2020
Hi koorka1, Thank you for taking the time to write to us. We are deeply sorry about the situation and understand your disappointment, the full nights stay was indeed refunded however if you do have a concern over this please contact us directly at the hotel to rectify this. We would like to assure you that this issue has since been investigated and resolved. The review you made on Booking.com was posted and we did respond, the hotel has no control over the reviews posted and all are available to view regardless of the score we receive. Christie & The Team
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Location: perfect Rooms: not all of them can be reached by elevator, maybe you will have to carry your luggage through a narrow staircase. Breakfast: You can book an additional one, which is very good when finally arriving. Basic one: Lousy coffee, and having to ask for everything. Not enough spoons, cups, sugar.... Housekeeping: Room wasn't tidied up everyday because they were running low in staff. Kettle with tea and coffee in the room Shower: modern, but you can easily slip, have to use a slip-free plastic, slow drain Service: friendly young team, a little stretched to thin, no flexibility for a later check-out than 12 o' clock and no possibility to shower after the marathon (after check-out) although promised
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Date of stay: May 2022
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Room Tip:Ask everything in detail in advance
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Dylan Crosbie, General Manager at Grassmarket Hotel
Responded Jun 1, 2022
Hi X1866Nfrital, We really do appreciate the time you have taking out to write us a review. I have spoken with the housekeeping staff regarding the room not being serviced and have assurance that changes have been made immediately. The hotel is also going to be going through a refurbishment, planning to be complete by the end of the year. This will give us a chance to tackle any problems within bathrooms etc. We hope to see you back here soon and eagerly anticipate your next reservation. Kind Regards, Dylan Crosbie.
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There are more places to choose from in the Edinburgh area.
PRICE RANGE
C$294 - C$538 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
grassmarket hotel edinburgh
LOCATION
United KingdomScotlandEdinburghGrassmarket / Old Town
NUMBER OF ROOMS
42
Prices are the average nightly price provided by our partners and may not include all taxes and fees. Taxes and fees that are shown are estimates only. Please see our partners for more details.
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