I chose this hotel as an anniversary treat for myself and my boyfriend. It was a surprise treat for him, and boy what a surprise it was.

Upon arriving at the hotel we were told that our room was not yet ready, and asked to come back in about half an hour. We decided to leave our bags and take a little time to explore Edinburgh- arriving back at the hotel an hour later. During check in, a deposit of £100 was taken off my credit card with no explanation and no receipt was given to me.

Arriving in our assigned room (the Paris room) we discovered that it was very dirty. There was a thick layer of dust on the surface tops of tables and other furniture, as well as on the skirtingboards, light fittings and wall hangings. Much to the horror of myself and my boyfriend, there was also the remnent of a sanitary towel wrapper on the floor, along with small pieces of rubbish, hair accessories, and lots of stray cottons.

Moreover, there were blood stains on the bed sheets in two different places - both had been covered up by throws and cushions so we would not immediately see them.

Other problems that quickly became apparent were that the room was only laid out for one person, not two, with a single towel and robe and that here were no slippers in the room.

There was also no Tassimo coffee machine as promised, only a kettle, and no milk was provided.

We immediately went down to reception and complained to the receptionist who offered to change our room for the inconvenience.

We were moved rooms to the LA Suite, and upon entering that room, I stepped on a fairly large piece of broken glass. We then found several pieces of glass in both the living area and the bathroom, as well as some very small pieces embedded in the carpet by the side of the bed .

Yet again, there was rubbish across the floor in this room along with several dark coloured hair grips (I am blonde so clearly not mine) , and the remains of a packet of crisps had been emptied into one of the drawers. As with the previous room, there were no slippers in this room, and the bathrobes had stains and sizeable holes in them. Also, the remote for the bathroom tv did not work and half the TV channels did not work on the main TV.

We once again immediately complained to reception and asked for a manager. They sent up a housekeeper to see us, not a manager, who apologised and assured us she would get someone to sort it out. We pointed out the glass in each instance, and showed her the crisps inthe drawer - leaving the drawer open to help them identify this.

Despite the promise of having the room cleaned again, it was not done. They had simply shut the drawer with the crisps in, and removed a few pieces of rubbish from the floor. All of the glass remained on the floor.

We went back to reception for a third time, and were promised a meeting with the area manager. We were then kept waiting for about 25 minutes whilst he was busy. Once he arrived, we complained to the area manager, who told us that he had just been up to both the Paris and the LA rooms, and that hethought the blood stains were merely small specks and he would not call them spots. His manner was quite dismissive and accusatory towards us (we are a young couple). He said that the housekeeping staff was overworked (there are only 18 rooms!) and that it was a mistake.

We explained that we were very upset as we were there to celebrate our anniversary and that, after travelling for 6 hours to get to Edinburgh, we had spent more time sorting out our room situation than we had sightseeing in the city. He then asked what our plans were, and we said that we were going out for dinner and then wanted an early night as we were very tired. He then offered to send us a bottle of champagne to celebrate our anniversary. We agreed that this would go some way to compensate for the trouble we had encountered on our arrival. However, if we had known that there were more problems yet to reveal themselves we would not have been so ameniable.

The area manager also told us he had cleaned up the glass personally; however, on returning to the room we found most of the glass to still be on the bathroom floor. We picked this up ourselves and left it on the side in the hope that the housekeeping would find it the next morning.

After returing from our dinner, we found that the room was only turned down for one person with one chocolate which I presumed we were supposed to share between the two of us.

The bathroom, once glass free, was lovely with a two person bath which we enjoyed before attempting to go to bed around midnight. I say attempt, because the noise from the bar and club underneath the hotel rooms was several decibels too loud and very very intrusive. We had asked for a quiet room, so goodness only knows how loud it was in the other rooms in the hotel.

The next morning we tried to make a cup of tea, but found the milk provided in a jug in the mini bar had separated and was off. I rang down to reception and asked for some more milk as I was fully prepared to make the drinks myself; the receptionist said she would get room service to bring us two teas for our incovenience. We were still waiting for these over an hour later, and so decided to give up and check out. Upon checking out, we mentioned that we had not had a drink that morning as room service had never turned up with our tea. The receptionist apologised, yet despite the hotel having it's own catering facility, we were not offered a drink then.

We were then falsely accused of taking things from the mini bar, unti I pointed out that the room minibar had not actually been restocked prior to our arrival I then made a point of informing them about the holey bathrobes, and such.

This trip was for mine and my boyfriend's anniversary, and it was a real disappointment. Having stayed in other boutique hotels such as The Dylan in Dublin I had high hopes for this - Scotland's Boutique Hotel of the Year 2009 - unfortunately we were both bitterly disappointed.

Overall, the hotel has some lovely features, and the decoration is of a fairly high standard. The idea of a theme for each suite is clever, and the added touches of DVD's in keeping with the theme are great. Unfortunately, the service in the hotel was severely lacking, and it is just a real shame that housekeeping seem unable to do their jobs properly.

Definitely one to avoid, at least until the management listen to their customers and improve the service they provide.