Insight Tours' brochure states the Royal Terrace Hotel is a First Class hotel. Other Ratings' Services list the hotel as anywhere from a 2 star hotel to a 5 star hotel. As we were coming off a supposedly hectic budget coach tour of the Baltic countries (COSMOS Tours - it turned out to be a wonderful First Class tour with great accommodations, wonderful dining, superb itinerary, and very comfortable coach), our Travel Agent thought we would appreciate two weeks of luxury and First Class accommodations for our requested tour of Ireland & Scotland - in April, we agreed with her and she stated Insight Tours was the company to use for luxurious touring.

The last city on the tour was Edinburgh, Scotland - we had to extend our stay there by two nights to make a flight connection, so I decided to check TripAdvisor to see what previous clients of the Royal Terrace hotel had to say. I found the negative reviews upsetting and told my travel agent about them - she replied that Insight Tours only use First Class accommodations and the Royal Terrace hotel had probably improved, otherwise Insight Tours would not be using the hotel. She mentioned that it was very expensive to book the two extra nights with Insight and she would use another company, although it would still be expensive (remember it is supposed to be a First Class hotel).

Despite her assurances, I emailed the Royal Terrace hotel and sent them copies of the reviews posted on TripAdvisor. The Revenue Manager stated that persons that post on websites such as TripAdvisor only want to complain. I told him I would be spending 4 nights at his hotel and I wanted to stay in the same room for all 4 nights and I wanted a good room, not like the rooms in the TripAdvisor reviews. He assured me I would be able to stay in the same room for all 4 nights and he would make sure we were booked into a newly renovated room.

Friday June 16: Our tour group arrived in Edinburgh in the late afternoon. All were thrilled with how beautiful Edinburgh is and most were disappointed they would only have the next afternoon as free time before they had to go home on the morning of the 18th.
We were assigned Room 215 but our suitcases were delivered to Room 330 - our key folder had Room 330 scratched out and replaced by Room 215. On entering the room 215, it was immediately obvious it was not a newly refurnished room - traditional' seemed to mean everything in the room was the exactly the same furniture, carpeting, drapes, bedspreads, paint, et cetera as when the townhouses had been converted to the hotel - it had never been replaced or refurbished. It might have been clean but it didn't seem it. It was a nice sized room with twin beds, pants press, electric kettle with coffee & tea packets, a TV, 2 bedside tables (although only one had a lamp), a desk with a chair & lamp. All the lighting was very dim.
The bathroom was well-lit. It had a large Jacuzzi tub and an affixed overhead showerhead. Unfortunately the tub had a big black hole where it was missing on of its jets, the shield over the pump intake was missing, and the plug was broken. On the positive side, it had a clothesline over the tub. The sink's vanity had grotty, incomplete caulking around it but shampoos and soaps were supplied. Turning on the sink's tap, without putting in the plug, was interesting as the water took five minutes to drain after the sink filled with water. During this time, disgusting bits of putrid solid matter were regurgitated into the sink from its J-pipe(?).
Room 215 has very old 'traditional' large windows which opened easily - there is a view of the hotel's nice back garden and its tinkling fountain. Apparently we were fortunate our windows opened easily, other group members told us they were afraid to try to open their windows to cool off the room because they feared the windows would break or fall off their hinges.

June 17: The next morning we went down for breakfast in what some TripAdvisor reviewers called the dungeon. They were correct when they stated it had no windows and it was in the basement, and it cannot seat many persons but I did not find it an unpleasant room (except it was quite warm, being next to the kitchen). The buffet consisted of the normal budget Scottish hotel breakfast food - toast, two types of Danish buns, cereals, scrambled eggs, ham, bacon - definitely not First Class dining. After breakfast, we went to Reception and asked to be moved to another room as 215 was unsanitary. The receptionist was polite and helpful. She found it curious that our original room of 330 had been changed to 215 despite 330 being empty. The porter moved our belongings to Room 330 while we were on the excellent city tour. The city tour showed us the hotel was in a decent location for walking to the sights. Yes, it is at least a 15 minutes walk to Princes Street but the Saint James Shopping Mall is on the way there. We returned to the hotel and Room 330, it was a refurbished room, and it even felt clean!!
June 18, 2005: Reception phoned us at 8:30 a.m. and asked if we could pop by later on and speak to them. At 9:30 a.m., Reception phoned again and explained they wanted us to move to another room, 315, because a family whom wanted 'interconnecting' rooms would be checking in during the afternoon - I understood their problem and agreed to move to 315. I went down to Reception and asked for the key to 315 so we could move our belongings before we went sightseeing. We were told that 315 would not be ready for at least 5 hours and that we should pack up our belongings and store them with Reception until that time - I stated we would be without a room despite having paid for one and their plan was unacceptable. At 10:30 a.m., I spoke to the Assistant Manager and asked why we couldn't use our room until 315 was available, then we would move our belongings to 315. The Assistant Manager stated that it was impossible because 315 still had people in the room. I asked her if check-out time was 11:00 a.m., she said it was. I told her that 315 should be vacant at 11:00 a.m., therefore the cleaning staff could work on it at that time - when it was clean, we would move into 315 and the cleaning staff could then clean 330 but my suggestion did not seem to make sense to her. I was becoming annoyed. I explained how my original concern had been about the hotel's unsanitary conditions and about being moved from room to room during our 4 night stay and it seemed my concerns were real. I asked how the hotel was going to compensate us for the many hassles we were experiencing and that a free dinner would not be remiss. She gave the impression that any compensation was unheard of. On our way up to room 330, we discovered that Room 315 was vacant and had already been cleaned - the alway polite receptionist ran up to us and informed us that alternate accommodations had been found for the family and that we could stay in 330.
Room 330 was our room until we checked out. We had great difficulty regulating the amount and the temperature of the water with the tub's new plumbing fixtures: after running for 15 seconds, the water flow would stop for 10 seconds, then start up again - the cycle kept repeating itself. We spoke to other clients on the third floor and discovered they were having the same problems with their tubs' plumbing - we did not mention this problem to the hotel staff for fear of being transferred to another room.
Yes, The Royal Terrace Hotel has a decent location and its back gardens are nice. The hotel's bar is just a small ordinary bar, not what I would expect in a First Class hotel. I would never recommend staying in any Royal Terrace Hotel room that has not been refurbished. Even the refurbished rooms I would not recommend until the plumbing problems have been fixed. If you expect a First Class hotel experience, for example, Marriott quality in dining, accommodations, and service - I cannot recommend staying in this hotel. I feel, by North American standards, this is a budget hotel with a good location - it is not a First Class hotel.
I wished I had believed TripAdvisor instead of the Travel Agent.