ms@MCO

We were there last year. Used points to upgrade to Castle view room and was given a room on an upper floor with a dead-on view of the Castle. Very nice, especially at night. The room was pretty good sized and had a sitting area with a sofa and a couple of chairs.

The club lounge is smallish and not too much to choose from, but it's nice that they have it. Everyone that we came in contact with at the hotel was extremely pleasant. Didn't use the Spa.

BTW if you like seafood, we loved the Mussel Inn Restaurant. In fact we went twice. It's on Rose St. a block or so from Princes St. and a very easy walk from the hotel. They serve mussels in large, steaming pots. Yum. I hope you have a great visit. ms

mikeef

Thanks all. We're still planning the trip and called the concierge earlier this week to get us some info on the area (I never seem to hear back from the concierge line, but that's a topic for another thread...). In addition to the city, we're going to try to get in a trip on the Harry Potter train and a trip through the countryside, so we're all ears for suggestions.

Mike

amexpete

I have stayed there a few times although I prefer the Caledonian hotel just down the road at the junction with Princess street which is an old railway hotel with fantastic big rooms. I have been lucky at the Sheraton and normally get a room with a name, they are nice and you have plenty of room in them. As mentioned the club room is small but OK, as for the Spa I would use it first without paying, this enables use of the gym large and large pool. If you pay £20 you can use the steam rooms and saunas and the roof outdoor hot tub, I would ask for a free look first as I paid once and found it nothing special, infact an awful lot of hen parties stay there and the women get wild and chatter away in the silent steam rooms which is quite annoying, some are barely dressed and it does affect your meditation.

There are two tubs at the far right hand end of the pool, jacuzzi type big baths, you need the special wrist key that you get when you pay your £20 to start them up, you choose a scent (which does not work anyway) and it fills up, takes 5 mins or so, when you have finished they empty and disinfect themselves. I saw a few people who did not have the wrist band on just go through the glass gate into the thermal spa area when someone was coming out, perhaps they did not know what was what but nobody seemed to bother. They have one sauna which is hybrid, half sauna half steam room quite nice. They also have body machines in the shower rooms that will blow dry you off, I personally thought they were a gimmic and so relied on the old hand job and did it myself using my towel.

I lived there for many years, it is an interesting place and you will enjoy it.

ms@MCO

We can't get enough of castles, so we took a day trip to Stirling Castle. It's a 50 minute train ride from Edinburgh and I think the trains run about every hour. We got on a sightseeing bus at the train station in Stirling. It's one of those Hop-on Hop-off buses that take you to Stirling Castle, William Wallace Monument, etc. Very enjoyable day.

ms

danam

Always had a suite upgrade and lounge access as plat, last stay a couple of months ago, ususally stay a few times a year.

One Spa has drastically gone downhill. On last visit they didn't have robes or footwear available, even though we were spending several hundred £'s in the spa! They were also good enough to give our room key (used as a deposit on the wristwatch thingy) to someone else. Quality security system that. Had to wait for reception to bring a new key up to us while we sat outside our room.

JAGMAP

I think a distinction needs to be made here. To use the pools & exercise equipment - there is no charge. To use the "spa" part where there are all different types of steam rooms and saunas, there is a charge. You must get a watch-like device that gets you into this special area (it also doubles as your locker key - really neat device). I've stayed at this hotel twice in the past year and both times I was able to access the "spa" part for free. I just put my watch band up to the reader and PRESTO! the door opened for me. Yes, I realize I got lucky. If crowds bother you, avoid the spa/pools on weekends.

UpgradeMe

Stayed on points in April. Paid the 1k extra to get a castle view. Upgraded to castle view suite. Lounge was modest. Amenity was forgotten, though I did receive an apology (and an offer of a to-go bag) when I mentioned it at check-out.

thesilb

Stayed here in May, 2004, hotel was great and platinum treatment was 1000%. Sent 3 clients and 1 group of friends there over the next year, over the IC George (in part b/c of how much we adored the thermal suite at OneSpa, the hotel is just sort of average although the plat treatment was great.)

Stayed here May, 2005. Night and day. Hotel service was just plain poor in every regard. No amenity. Botched the upgrade (promised us a specific suite by room number if we would wait 3 hours to check in...stored our bags and did so...when got back they had given the suite to someone else and we got a crummy regular room.) To top it off they have cancelled the platinum benefit by which you get into the thermal suite of the OneSpa for a discounted price. Attitude of all staff = couldn't care less. Too bad, this used to be one of my fave SPG properties in the UK. Looks like it is all done for now.

Looks like in EDI Sheraton is no longer the place to be. I will try the IC George next time around.

AJLondon

Small problem: The IC group sold off the George last week. So no longer an IC property. (There is a thread on this in the IC forum.)

mikeef

Okay, just returned from a two-day trip. Big thumbs-up for the hotel.

We arrived at noon on Saturday. Cab from the airport is about 15 pounds, so not too terrible. Our room was ready when we got there and the manager escorted us up to a small suite. It was one of the named suites, but I forget which one (Room 735). It was not enormous, but was definitely cozy and well-appointed, and had a decent sized bathroom. We had a good view of the castle. Everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming, and we chose the local gift for our amenity, which was a bottle of scotch and a really good maple sugar candy.

On Day 2, we decided to take a tour of the countryside and the concierge recommended a Gray Line tour for 24 pounds. I'm normally pretty skeptical of tours that the hotel recommends, but this one was actually quite informative, and we enjoyed the 9-hour tour, especially since it got us away from the city and the G-8 protests.

The lounge was small but the staff member was friendly and it was a good place to relax. Breakfast was 7-9 am and hors d'oeuvres were 5-7 pm. The lounge was open every day. Breakfast was the standard continental breakfast, while hors d'oeuvres were drinks and sushi (Am I the only person left in the world who doesn't like sushi?).

The spa was nice, but service was a little shaky. Never bad, just a little flaky sometimes. The indoor pool was nice and my wife says that she got a really great massage. The Cleopatra pools (essentially two oversized bathtubs that serve as hot tubs) were nice and you could get scents pumped in (The scents worked.).

We really felt that the staff went out of their way. Even little things, like the concierge thinking to ask us if we wanted a wake-up call as he was booking our tour. Definitely a thumbs up.

Oh, one word of warning. There are a lot of good restaurants in the area. Skip the room service. Julius Caesar would roll over in his grave if he could taste the hotel's version of the salad that was named after him.

Mike`

BlueHenFlyer

I just returned from a great trip to the UK on vacation. Unfortunately, the dim lights in my trip were the Sheraton properties and the Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa was one of the lowlights.

I realize that some of my comments below may be a bit picky - but this is a hotel that sells itself on "five-star opulence," not as a part of the Holiday Inn chain or a B&B.

I arrived with my family in a rental car at approximately 1 PM on Friday. At that point in time, all of the loading/unloading spots in front of the hotel were "coned off", so we parked our rental car in front of the lobby doors. I waited at check-in for more than 5 minutes before being welcomed. At that time, I checked in to our two rooms (one was not ready for use) and received information regarding the hotel services.

I returned to the car and was surprised to see that my wife and family were still inside and that no bellman had either offered to take our bags - nor had their been enough of a concern about a car parked in front of the hotel for 10 minutes to raise an inquiry from the 3 bellmen at the desk.

We removed our own bags from the car, dragged them through the closed door ourselves (still no offer to assist) and made it to the front desk before anyone offered to assist us with our bags. By that time, we were about at the elevators, so it was a moot point.

Rooms/Amenities:

Our rooms were nice, but small and certainly not "upgraded" in the sense that I have come to expect as a Starwood Platinum member. Our rooms had a view of the office building adjacent.

Upon checking in to the room, I noted that the faucet in our room was loose to the point of falling off and contacted the Guest Services line to place a Maintenance request (1330).

I had been offered a choice of Platinum amenities and selected the local "specialty" gift, which I was told would be a fruitcake. We received a small tin (about a $2 container) of shortbread instead.

After lodging the maintenance request, we went visiting around the City and returned at about 5:30 PM. Washing in the bathroom we noted that the faucet had not been fixed and placed a second maintenance call (17:30).

Continuing Maintenance Saga

At about 8 PM (2000), maintenance had still not fixed the faucet. My family was readying for bed, so I went to ask about this in person at the desk. I was informed that "someone would be right up."

When I returned to the room after making a phone call, the maintenance staffer was working on the faucet. According to my wife, he had arrived and then was beeped/buzzed again. He answered the page by using our room phone (without asking) and then said to my wife: "this must be an important faucet, this is the 4th call I've gotten today about it"! He also advised my wife that these faucets were of poor construction and that there was a box of 254 new faucets sitting in the maintenance area waiting the plumber's arrival to replace.

What? No Taxi!

Our evening concluded without incident. I contacted the guest services line and - after many rings - was answered by someone who appeared to be at the bell desk. I requested a taxi be booked for us for the airport at 0500 the following morning.

Waking and coming down for check out the following morning (0450), I inquired about the taxi. The agent at check out assured me that the taxi would be along momentarily, as the Sheraton had a contract with them and they were never late.

At 0505 - with no taxi, I returned to the front desk to inquire. Imagine my shock - and amazement - that the staff of the Sheraton Grand Hotel and Spa had capped my stay by requesting a cab for 0530 - too late for us to make our flight home! The front desk staff called the cab company and got us a cab within 10 minutes. Thankfully, we made the airport with a few minutes to spare and - of course - benefitted from no traffic on a Saturday morning.

I would rate the service of the Sheraton at about 3 stars and the rooms about 4. Anoyone expecting the kind of 5 star service I've received at Westins thorughout Germany and Italy at this property will be in for a rude awakening.

LLM

At least they booked you a taxi! They didn't bother booking ours. Luckily, it also didn't matter since my husband always plans on leaving far earlier than necessary and we made it in plenty of time. Sounds like the service problems there have not changed since we were there last summer .

jamienbaker

All - staying at the Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa in EDI this weekend. I've been blocked into the following room:

Room Features: Deluxe Suite Room, Oversized Room, Separate Livingroom W/Sofa, Desk, 2 Televisions

Any feedback?

Thanks - Jamie

DanAirUk

Jamie,

I stayed in a deluxe suite in this hotel in Feb, as my wife was running a conference there. I found it very good indeed and I particularly liked the staff, who were genuinely friendly and helpful. Our suite had a lounge with small sofa, couple of comfy chairs, coffee table and a large TV. The bedroom was separated by dividing doors and had a comfortable 6 foot king size bed and another TV. All the furnishings were in a stylish tartan and very well done.

We had beakfast in our room and it was very tasty. There is an excellent restaurant and although I did not try the spa, the pool was very good.
Some of our friends had double rooms, which were also of a similar high standard and Hotel made the conference one of the best that my wife had been involved in.

I would also recommend "The Witchery" in Edinburgh, if you ever what a very special romantic weekend - we stayed there for one night after the Sheraton and it was amazing and just down from the Castle.


John

jamienbaker

As I'm travelling alone, Mrs. Baker requests I keep romance to a minimum. Thanks for feedback, very, very helpful. I'll have all day Sunday afternoon to myself, with nothing planned.

Jamie