This is a hard review to write. The flat was mostly fine, but there were some issues that made it far from perfect.
Let’s start with the good: the location is just south of the High Street/Royal Mile, about a five minute walk depending on how long it takes you to walk up a hill or some stairs and perfectly convenient to the National Museum, other parts of the Old Town, New Town/Waverley Station area; in the latter case, I mean if you’re taking a train trip out for the day. With the hills and stairs, walking to and from the train station/Princes Street tram station/left luggage areas to the flat on your first and last days can be an ordeal unless you’re traveling really light (which we need to learn to do!). That said, there is a washer/dryer in the flat so perhaps you can bring less stuff and wash clothes more frequently if your other places also have laundry; however, the washer/dryer is a single unit so a wash/dry cycle takes about three hours and it’s small (compared to a U.S. machine at least) so you may need to do multiple loads. But the hills, stairs, and steps may be an issue for some people.
Other positives is that the heating worked fine, it’s relatively spacious, and the kitchen supplies (plates, glassware, cutlery) were ample.
There are, however, areas for improvement:
1. The Bell’s Wynd Close, which leads from the Royal Mile to the flat, is a bit dark. That’s just something to be aware of - although nothing happened to us.
2. Something about Uber’s location software cannot find the flat and asks you to walk down a hill, around the corner, and up a hill to a pick-up spot. Normally, this is not the worst thing in the world, but on the last day with all our stuff (remember about not packing light!) it was a pain to get the driver to come to the spot itself on Tron Square.
3. The WiFi got sorted out, but the information on the card and then an additional code/password they gave us did not work. Luckily, there was a third one on the router itself and that did the trick so my initial panic about huge data charges for internet access came to naught. A bit annoying at first … and surprising since this property is professionally managed, not by the owner of the unit, so I would have expected better. But it got sorted at the end.
4. The coffee pot is ridiculously small, making just one cup at a time. That’s tough for caffeine addicts!
5. There are few hangars and even less drawer space in the flat.
6. The beds are both doubles (this is stated in the listing so not truly a complaint) but there is more than ample room for a more comfortable queen-sized bed — which I would suggest as it would be better for two people.
7. There were minimal supplies in the apartment. We had to go buy paper towels, toilet paper, and napkins which I would not have expected. Also, there were dishwasher pods but no dishwasher … just an oddity really, but was this related to the corporate management where dishwasher pods are on a check list regardless of whether there is a dishwasher or not?
8. There was just one set of keys. There was an outside lockbox but since we often separate during the day on our travels, that was a bit of an inconvenience that having two or even three sets would have easily solved. Not the worst thing, but not ideal.
9. We had an issue with our shower drain. Now, I’ll state first that they took it seriously and said someone would come, but did not state that we had to be there to let the person in. Not sure if this is so that no one is in the apartment alone or if they don’t have other keys, but they did ask if the keys would be in the lock box (which they were not since we had taken a day trip all together), implying that security was not the factor but, rather, a shortage of keys. That’s odd. However, the issue was not fixed the first time so it had to be addressed one more time (it was properly fixed the second time) requiring that we be there. So, very happy that the situation was addressed eventually, but the process (and two showerless days) was sub-par.
10. Other reviews stated that there is street noise. Believe them, especially on the weekends.