My Husband I were celebrating our anniversary with a long weekend in Edinburgh. Let me start by saying there is a major renovation being done and HALF of the hotel is shut off.

We booked months in advance and paid extra for the Deluxe Plus room with a view of the castle. There are four floors in this hotel and in the short time we stayed, we moved four times!! The first room they gave us, while very roomy, was right next to a room that was under renovation. Hammering and banging with no signs of stopping. We called and were given another room. Not as big, but okay.....that is until the fire alarm went off at 11:30pm! False alarm (from the other reviews, this happens A LOT here!!!) We trecked outside and stood in the cold for an hour. AFter getting back inside and listening to the fire alarm for another 20 minutes, we discovered that the street noise was unbearable! Drunks and gangs of people parading ALL night. If that wasn't enough, the inconsiderate hotel guests coming and going all night, slamming doors prevented us from gettiing any sleep.

IT SEEMS THIS HOTEL IS NOT SOUNDPROOF, ESPECIALLY FROM THE STREET NOISE AND THE VERY OLD WINDOWS ARE NOT DOUBLE GLAZED.

Well, we moved the next day, then later in the day, moved to a quiet room, overlooking the back, simply because we needed to get some rest. I would not pay the big price to upgrade, unless you can go without sleep.

The staff at the desk were a bit rude, but the staff in the dining room were very nice, except for the lobby waiter who talked on for 20 minutes about his nasty divorce! (Not a good thing.) We avoided the lobby area after that.

The breakfasts were run of the mill and the fruit was not up to par. The tables on the upper level were shakey and could use replacement.

The manager was very helpful with the room situation and sent up a lovely fruit plate, which was lovely.

All in all, we spent the majority of our weekend, changing rooms. They'd be better off closing down and renovating all at once because the drilling and pounding is too much!

Stayed two nights as a base for a work trip and conference at the nearby Sheraton. Fine as a place to get your head down, but wasn't massively impressed. Tatty in places reminded me of the Adelphi in Liverpool: it's seen better days. Certainly wouldn't describe it as five star. Our room was small (perhaps because we were booked in as conference guests), at the side of the hotel, down an old fashioned corridor and overlooking a building site. Really small bathroom, open the door onto the toilet that sort of thing. Breakfast was good on the first morning - we even commented on how efficient the service was which makes a nice change, but wasnt so good on the second morning (a little later on in the day). All in all ok for a work trip but would have been disappointed if this was for a leisure break.

My memory tells me the Caledonian Hilton used to have a way better ranking than the #35 that it is now - and I can fully understand why. It's not a bad place to stay, but far from the excellence you'd associate with the stars, name and pricing.

My girlfriend and me went to the place over Christmas. We were welcomed by a staff member who picked up I was German and started talking to me in German - despite my efforts to get her back to English, since my girlfriend is Italian and doesn't understand German. She commented: "<insert name of other staff member> is responsible for Italian."

The room we had seemed kind of small and a litte run-down, at least far from shiny and polished - except for the magnificent bathroom. It seemed as if there were always problems with the heating as the temperature was either too hot or too cold.

We ordered the International Herald Tribune for the morning - one out of four days, they forgot to deliver the paper, the other day, it was the "Scottish tribune". Failing to pick the right paper is not dramatic - but a little symptomatic for the state of the hotel.

The breakfast (although finishing quite early) was excellent, the buffet offered a variety of food with information on its nutritional values nearby. The main courses in the restaurant are very nice as well, although vegetarians may feel their choice to be very limited.

The Caledonian features a very nice and clean pool and spa. Area-wise, the hotel is suited perfectly for walks within Edinburgh as almost all of the city's major sights are just a footwalk away. And getting away from the hotel is one thing you might wanna do more often than you originally had in mind ...

visited11 april 2008, reviewer tripadvisor member sheffield.
my husband and I have just returned from a weekend trip we stayed at the caledonian. after booking the hotel and checking out the reviews on the tripadvisor site had very mixed views, but what a beautiful grand hotel, even though they are going through a major refubishment programme this did not cause any issues.
we paid for a double deluxe room , it was a large room on the third floor the bathroom was very modern the room was identical to the photo they used for the website we could not fault it .
the evening meal was very nice and the staff are very polite yes it can be a little expensive but nothing more than you would pay in any city 5 star hotel
had to complain to the management at 5.30am , the couple from the opposite room came home very drunk started shouting and fighting i got very concerned about poor sharon??? it was not a problem for the duty manager to sort out .
l would visit this grand hotel at anytime and i would advise a visit.