The bedroom I stayed in is part of a nice, clean, fully appointed, genuinely lived-in apartment (fully equipped kitchen and bathroom, sofa in the living room, dresser and wardrobe full of the regular occupant's clothes in the bedroom) a reasonable bus ride from the touristic center of Edinburgh.
One accesses the property with a key in a lockbox, without any direct interaction with the host.
It's fully recommended apart from the fact that there is one other bedroom, occupied when I was there, and no lock on either, so that person would have had full access to my room while I slept and while I was out of the house, if they so desired. It might be worth checking to see if this has changed.