My husband and I booked a private double room here during the Int'l festival when accommodation near city centre was limited. Our room was tiny and there was no furniture in it other than the bed - not even a chair! Although the locks seemed secure enough, our room's door looked beaten up, like it had been kicked in several times before. Our window was old and would not close. The hostel is on a noisy street (Cowgate) and is directly across from a loud bar with an outdoor patio, open until 3 a.m.! So, if you were planning any early tours, forget about sleep! The shower in our unit was broken and did not have a door. We had to pay a couple of British Pounds for bath towels. The bathroom cleanliness was questionable and the shared kitchen was dirty and gross - I would not cook anything there. The fridge was leaky and full of molding food items. We left after the first night and found alternative accommodation at the Edinburgh University campus. It was a 10 minute walk to city centre but definitely gave us the peace of mind we needed after our experience with the Cowgate hostel.

if you intend on staying here bring your own bed linen cos the quilt covers & pillow cases are not clean and smell violently.! the place was disgusting! a smell of dampness everywhere you went. there was no window that opened in the room but an AC system than made more noise than the pub directly across the road.! the matress were so thin you could feel the bars underneath the bed.! while we were there some girl complained that she had got bitten while she slept and had come out in a rash from the dirty bed linen! the bathrooms were very unhygenic with blood in the showers! definitely would not advise anybody to stay there no matter what your budget your better off to pay the extra few pounds!!!

Booked here out of desperation as coulnd't get a room at a low price anywhere else. Stayed in a twin room within an apartment sharing a bathroom and kitchen with another party. The bedroom wans't clean and the bathroom was filthy. Our room door didn't lock properly from the inside and at two in the morning the girls in the other group burst into our room - just drunk and obnoxious but obviously quite a shock to wake up like that! So secuirty isn't great. Furthermore, the hostel is almost opposite a busy pub. The noise was one thing; quite another was the constant flow of men coming accross the road to pee in the doorway to the hostel (we had side door access, not the main entrance). By the Saturday morning the lake of urine had risen up under the door and into the entrance hall. I'm no princess but at that point I was desperate to leave!

location tip top, the famous 5 took a 6 man dorm and did us fine. room got a bit smelly and the matress springs wanted to make their presence felt. overall it suited us fine. we put our trust in simon cbi and it paid off. toilets were loaded with toilet roll and kitchen looked fine, as far as i could see as i walked thro it in my skimpies to the shower. a wooo hooo, wahayyy