A great room is very important to us. We get every pennys worth - perhaps sightseeing for a while and a little retail therapy, but we love staying in our room, ordering room service, watching films and generally enjoying the luxury. We got a good discount on the room (who ever pays the full rate anyway?) but even without this it was worth the money. We had an executive room. We didn't have to even answer the door for room service - everything was delivered by a private dumb waiter with the hatch located in the entrance hall leading to the bedroom. State of the art DVD and equipment. No less than 6 FULL SIZE Moulton Brown shower/bath foams above the bath. Sofa and writing desk at the end of the room. Staff were friendly and helpful. And the brasserie (which is the hotel frontage) was extremely good. The swimming pool is stainless steel and the hotel has a private cinema with 50 leather seats. They got us into one of the best restaurants in Edinburgh at a moment's notice. If you want contemporary modern with history combined and ultimate luxury this is the place. Paying that bit extra for the room really does pay if you plan to spend time in it.

The hotel is located in a great building in Edinburgh's historical center with spacious rooms. Unfortunately, the hotel staff are really incompetent or careless, with a stereotyped smile but no real concern for their clients.

With an outside temperature below 10 C, we arrived in our room in the afternoon and found it damp and without any heating. We were told it would be fixed, but nothing was done until the follwing night, when we finally managed to have someone bring a portable heater. Similarly, the safe in our room was locked when we arrived; we asked for it to be opened, but by the time we left the hotel two days later nobody had even bothered to explain what the problem was or offer a solution.

This is definitely not a 5-star hotel as concerns service, comfort or efficiency.

The Scotsman sells its self as a 5 star hotel. It's prices say it is - our room was discounted by 50% and still average £170 a night but it was little better than staying in a Travelodge.

1) No air conditioning. The room was roasting hot. In April! I thought this unacceptable at these prices. Staff just shrugged at our complaint.
2) Theroom was very dusty - thick with it behind the over elborate TV/internet thing.
3) TV was broken. The colour was bright pink and couldnt be fixed
4) The Sound on the TV had to be fixed.
5) Odd black wooded D.I.Y style set in wardrobes were covered in greasy thumb prints. It looked like the sort of thing someones dad would knock up in a shed. Not luxury for sure.

The room wasn't very big and the bed was tiny. If I'd paid £70 it would have been ok at £170 it was a rip-off and I left feeling cheated. Sometimes it seems as if UK hotels just dont understand how to do hotels properly or what luxury/5star really means and worse still, they don't care.

The problem with the rooms here are that they are all quite individual in size and shape and therefore it is a bit of pot luck in terms of quality.

Last month I stayed in a suite - it was absolutely stunning. Very large room, great bathroom etc. However, this time I stayed in their basic room (called a Study Room). It was very small and poky with no view at all - I would have been very upset if I had paid rack rate. Overall, I just wouldn't bother staying in the basic rooms here.

On other issues, the bar/brasserie is really great. Serves good drinks in a really nice atmosphere and the restaurant food is really good. There is another more exclusive restaurant in the hotel which does a really good meal!

On the service side, things are a little patchy. People are very polite but I sometimes had the feeling they were just smiling but not really listening. One service they have is shoe cleaning overnight. Tried it twice - no one has ever collected the shoes!

So in summary, if I stayed in the basic room, I would give it a 1 or 2 rating, but in a better room it is a 4 or 5.