Carlton Hotel, Edinburgh

...for the night was the Carlton Hotel, an outlet of the Paramount hotel chain, and one of two in the City.

LOCATION
Their claim of being bang in the centre of Edinburgh was a little bit of a shock, as we only managed to find one pub within relatively easy walking distance. The hotel has 190 rooms and has recently benefited from an £8 million refurbishment programme, apparently, according the website, the hotel been a both a department ...
...overnight conference delegate, what the Carlton did, and did very well, was feed us. The menu was “Table D’Hote” rather than “a la carte”, which always gives me nightmares because of my food allergies, although on this occasion, I was to be pleasantly surprised. For starters I had Chicken terrine, which reminded me of the awful cheapo meats we used to buy years ago from the cold meat counters in the local shop, for main course (considerably better), ... more

Trust me - all will be revealed in the fullness of time!!!!!!!!!

On this occasion in early June it was destination Edinburgh; my bed for the night was the Carlton Hotel, an outlet of the Paramount hotel chain, and one of two in the City.

LOCATION
Their claim of being bang in the centre of Edinburgh was a little bit of a shock, as we only managed to find one pub within relatively easy walking distance. The hotel has 190 rooms and has recently benefited from an £8 million refurbishment programme, apparently, according the website, the hotel been a both a department store and a hospital in a former like.

Situated close to Princes Garden and a few minutes walk away from Waverly train station, the hotel is considerably more than a stones throw from the airport, setting me back a hefty £18 for a taxi one way. And for anyone arriving at the airport, beware you follow the taxi procedures to the letter of the law, well at least the airport law, or you will more than likely get lynched by the over-zealous attendants.

There is a newsagents, Boots store and Pizza hut directly opposite the hotel for those last minute emergencies and midnight feasts.

CHECK-IN
But back to the hotel; reception is one mighty grand affair, not dissimilar to the Europa in Belfast, check in is swift and pleasant, requiring the customary pre-authorisation swipe of your credit card - you are also offered an early morning call and a newspaper (the latter not complementary I’m afraid). Once you are authorised you will be equipped with your swipe card and despatched to your room.

Lifts are thankfully plentiful as the hotel is spread out over 5 floors, although I didn’t witness any concierge staff bouncing around begging to help with my luggage. Mind you the following day they were in abundance offering to store our luggage, and sluggishly slow at returning it to us at the end of the day – bang went their tip.

THE ROOM
All decked out in a very dark oak wood effect, it was pretty standard fayre; quite small and housing a double bed, TV, tea and coffee making facilities, trouser press, telephone and modem point, wardrobes, free digital safe (I do wish more hotels would offer this facility), table/desk area with seats, one free plug socket precariously perched on the bottom of the wall at the edge of the bathroom, literally hanging off and not easily manoeuvrable to any mirrors.

The TV was remote controlled and had the usual selection of terrestrial and digital channels including Sky Sport and BBC3, although the remote control did not work well from the bed. All rooms are kitted out with air-conditioning, but from memory this didn't make much of an impact.

There was lots of wall mounted reading lights but no central room light (this is something I find increasingly absent, particularly from upmarket hotels – and my living room for that matter).

The room had a computerised mini-bars meaning that it was difficult to inspect the contents; anyone who has encountered one of these will know that reception staff will require physical proof in the form of taking any drinks not purchased to reception to prove you have not consumed them.

As would be expected from a 4 Star outlet, the room was en-suite, with a free standing sink!, bath, power shower, toilet and a few freebies, this is something else I have found is becoming less common as more hotels recognise the benefits of having shower gel and shampoo dispensers firmly fixed to their walls. I guess we all have to save money somehow. One feature I did particularly like, was the double shower curtain, one part goes inside the bath, the other outside, although it didn’t really stop me drowning the bathroom. I have an aversion to shower curtains as for some reason they always manage to stick to me.

Interestingly, and this is a new one on me (hence the title), the bathroom doors are glass, and not frosted. They have panels of white, interspersed with gaps of about 1 inch wide where you can easily peer through into the bathroom and see your other half in all their glory in the bath or on the loo – mmmmm, not convinced about this, thankfully I was alone.

The hotel has recently been reported to have an £8million face lift – so why the glass bathroom doors? Am I missing something?

THE FOOD
Being an overnight conference delegate, what the Carlton did, and did very well, was feed us. The menu was “Table D’Hote” rather than “a la carte”, which always gives me nightmares because of my food allergies, although on this occasion, I was to be pleasantly surprised. For starters I had Chicken terrine, which reminded me of the awful cheapo meats we used to buy years ago from the cold meat counters in the local shop, for main course (considerably better), beef, green beans and potatoes (although the potatoes turned up after the meat had been eaten) and for desert some form of fruit compote with cold custard.

Red and white wine were supplied, however, not being a grape drinker, I had to wait a considerably long time for my lager order from the bar – and even then they got my order wrong, giving me a pint rather than a half. A number of the staff were foreign workers who spoke very little English.

The breakfast and lunch, however, were buffet style, with an absolutely superlative choice of hot and cold meat and veggie options which saw myself and my colleagues probably putting on more than a few pounds for a single day.

Breakfast was fruit juice and yoghurts, cereals, fresh fruit, bacon, sausage, bacon, beans, mushrooms, soda bread, tomatoes, black and white pudding, all washed down with white or brown toast and tea of coffee.

Lunch was a huge choice of fresh salad products, cold meats, rice dishes, and masses and masses of cream and cake desserts.

PRICE
As with most hotels, prices vary. The website is currently offering deals at the hotel during early new year FROM £40 per person per night bed and breakfast. In the interest of satisfying my fellow ciao’ers – I tried reserving a room for two nights at the end of January .

The paramount website is cumbersome and fiddly, and slow to load despite having a very efficient broadband connection.

Upon submitting my request, I was offered a range of rates – starting with the rack rate for a standard double room of £160 per night, the Executive came in at a staggering £190 – but there were various offers on site, the cheapest being £122.

This is quite steep for a weekend stay – although during the Edinburgh festival in August prices were coming in at a staggering £1200 for a three night stay for a family of three – I could have a week abroad for that prices – you would be better off staying at the Jury’s hotel in Glasgow for a cool £35 per room, hiring a car and making your own way over to the city.

I suspect that better rates could be obtained for this hotel through sites such as laterooms, activehotels and superbreak.

As delegates of an overnight conference, we paid a cool (or at least the organisers did) £144 per delegate (the website is currently quoting £170 per delegate) – not bad considering it included use of all the facilities (the fact that we didn’t have time is not their problem) and included the overnight room, breakfast, lunch and evening meal plus use of one of their conference suites and liquid refreshments and biscuits for three scheduled breaks. The biscuits were rather nice, being primarily shortbread and coffee that resembled mud (and I like it strong) and ran out before we had finished queuing.

The hotel has 12 conference rooms accommodating between 12 and 200 people, dependent on the preferred layout and all required equipment such as Projectors and flipcharts.

There is a bar at the hotel which is not particularly cheap, although certainly reasonable compared to the Copthorne in Cardiff at around £3 for a Gin and Tonic.

LEISURE SUITE
From the website as I didn’t have chance to use or even look at it, the leisure suite is equipped with a swimming pool, spa, solarium, steam room, gym, aerobics and fitness studio, squash courts, table tennis, crèche and hair and beauty salon.

CUSTOMER SERVICE
I have to cover this separately, as I would have serious concerns about the ability of staff at this hotel to meet their customer needs.

Firstly, at around 6:45 in the morning, I was, whilst dozing in the bath, rudely awakened by a loud, and I mean loud, radio emanating from someone’s room – needless to say I contacted reception explaining that I was unclear where the noise was coming from and could they please do something about it. 20 minutes later, hurriedly dressed I set out to explore and established it was coming from the next room – another call to reception ensued who rang the room (!!!) why I am not sure as no-one could have slept through that – I won’t continue with the saga except to say that this process went on for 45 minutes in total, to say I was not happy was the understatement of the year.

After breakfast, upon returning to my room, I requested an iron from reception – very simpy, despite three repeat calls it never turned up, thankfully I had a un-matching but crease free blouse in the suitcase – as one of my colleagues agreed, when you stay away from home, it is the little things in life that make you stay pleasurable, and in this area, I am afraid to say that the Carlton Hotel, Edinburgh is sadly lacking.

WOULD I STAY THERE AGAIN?
I do stay in hotels a fair bit, and repeat what I have daid in earlier ops, the standard of 4 star outlets is definitely not what it used to be. Service has deteriorated and I am afraid that I regularly find that the national budget outlets offer superior service, standard features common to all their outlets, and good food and drink at far more reasonable prices.

The Carlton offers superlative food coupled with small rooms, high rates, totally see-through bathroom door, and poor customer service, plus the £18 taxi fare from the airport is sufficient to deter me. This is one city I am keen to be seeing more of, but I don’t think I will be booking into the Carlton unless I can find a very good offer.

STILL WANT TO KNOW MORE?
The Carlton Hotel
North Bridge,
Edinburgh. EH1 1SD
Telephone: 0131 472 3000
E-Mail: carlton@paramount-hotels.co.uk

http://www.paramount-hotels.co.uk/main
 

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