Stayed at the Old Waverley late December at start of Hogmany. Position close to everything. We walked easily to the Castle, Royal Mile, the Edinburgh Lyceem Theatre and joined the Torchlight procession just outside the Hotel front door.Winter Wonderland was accross the road.. Saved heaps on transfers. Airport Shuttle across road at GBP5 each return. Breakfast good with plenty of variety. Staff helpful and nice. Got a good price including full breakfast with Hotelclub by booking early in year. Had 3 rooms for six of us. The 2 twin rooms were quite spacious and had nice views to the castle and Princes street. The double room was dingy and small and had no view. However we had not paid to have Castle views but i had requested that at least one room have a castle view anyway and they gave us two! All our bathrooms looked recently renovated. I recommend that couples request twin rooms to get the extra space. This applies all over Europe also. I found Reception to be polite, friendly and efficient. Metered Parking, 4 hours, is available in the area behind the Hotel and around George Street and is free on weekends.We will stay there again as the position is magic but will be asking not to have small double rooms with views to the back alley!

With the Old Waverley Hotel you pay for the location, and not much else. It's situated on Princes Street, right opposite the train station and minutes from the shops, so very convenient.

However... the hotel itself is tired and a bit shabby. It's in need of a refurbishment (apparently they had done this prior to our stay - but evidently not in our room). When we first arrived there was a random pair of men's shoes sitting at the foot of our bed , which a bit strange to say the least! A man from reception promptly came and removed them! The room was very small, and although the sheets were seemingly clean, the bedspread looked filthy. Bathroom tiny. On the plus side, we got tea and coffee and a lovely view of some dirty chimneys...

My biggest grumble of all: We requested a non-smoking room, didn't get one, and the room STANK of stale smoke. Coupled with the yellowish tinge to the walls, it wasn't very appealing.

The noise was dreadful - construction going on next door so we endured constant banging noises, hammering and shouty workmen.

We did complain to reception (mostly about the skanky cigarette smell) and were told the hotel was fully booked, so no rooms available. They didn't seem too bothered. My boyfriend and I put up with it as we were uni students at the time and clearly much too accustomed to dingy student digs than we realised at the time! In retrospect, we should have made much more of a fuss.

Although the negatives clearly outweigh the positives of this hotel, I can say that the breakfast was excellent. A hearty full english and lots of variety. Needless to say, we milked the breakfast for all it was worth and watched our waistlines suffer...

Used the hotel for a business trip. Room was average but a bit tired despite having been refurbished (poor finish standard). Food was minging but dining room was very nice. Staff were nice at reception and checkout but a bit sinister in the dining room.
All in all adequate but not worth the money. Should be a good £25 cheaper given the standard of accommodation.

Nice clean room, friendly staff. Perfect location for shopping. Had a problem with drainage in bathroom but was fixed within half an hour of reporting the problem. Relaxing breakfast - staff did not stand over you and clear pots every second as in some hotels!! Would definitely stay again - maybe longer next time.