"I travel to Edinburgh with a large group for work about twice each year. We have stayed at the Bruntsfield hotel several times, and in the past, I always had a nice experience. I’m sorry to say that my experience in May 2026 reflected a serious decline. I’m posting these details here in the hope that the hotel will improve its facilities. Here are the problems I had during this stay:
1. TOO HOT: This was in early May, and Edinburgh was pleasantly warm during the day and perfectly cool at night. The hotel seemed to keep the heat on throughout the day in all the halls, and the upper floor was very hot by evening. I turned off the heat in my room, but the room was still very hot every evening, and there was no way to cool it down. The windows only open about 2 or 3 inches. I used a fan to try to blow air from this tiny opening into the room, but this was not effective. Sleep was uncomfortable all week in this hot sweaty room with a very loud fan.
Unless they install air conditioning or allow guests to open the window more than 3 inches, it seems like the upper floor of this hotel will be very hot and uncomfortable throughout summer and fall. So if you don’t like sleeping in a hot room, I recommend you go to a different hotel.
I will add that this was not just my experience. Other people in my group who were on the upper floor felt the same way about the heat.
2. TOO MUCH LIGHT FOR SLEEPING: Because the window had to stay open to allow any air into the room, the room was bight starting at sunrise at approximately 5:40 every morning. Again, sleep was difficult.
3. POORLY FUNCTIONING TOILET: The toilet in my room did not work well. It required massive strength to make it flush, and even then, the flushing was not fully effective. Over the course of the week, I learned to use the toilet down in the basement restaurant instead of the one in my room. When I informed the front desk about the problem, the man working there said that they would not send anyone to check on the problem because some of the rooms had old toilets that just work poorly, and they accepted that as normal.
4. POORLY DESIGNED SHOWER: The shower had one of these irritating designs where there was no way to take a shower without getting the entire bathroom wet.
5. DANGEROUS SHOWER: The shower was a high step up from the floor, and it was extremely slippery with no handles. I’m not a particularly old or unbalanced person, but I thought this was a pretty treacherous situation during entry and exit.
6. MISTAKE ON BILL: The hotel overcharged me and refunded this later. This is of course an honest mistake, and I appreciate their efforts to correct the situation. However, I was using my work credit card, and it’s still an ongoing hassle one month later to try to get this expense report approved with the strange 38 pound overcharge.
Since the Bruntsfield has been good for us in the past (nice location, reasonable price, nice staff, good beds), I might give them another chance, but only in winter when there’s no risk of having to sleep in such a hot room. And seriously, how could they not check to make sure the toilet is working properly?"
