Tourist who paid £300 a night for Scots hotel slams 'depressing view of bins'

A tourist who paid £300 a night to stay in a plush Scots hotel has slammed their 'depressing view of bins'. The guest, who visited Edinburgh in September, slammed the Royal Leonardo Hotel for putting them in a room overlooking a bin area.

The visitor took to TripAdvisor to share images of the bins and said that in their opinion, the hotel is "nothing special". Although they found Edinburgh to be a beautiful city, they said their experience at the hotel made them feel they were “staying somewhere dreadful.”

As reported in our sister title, Edinburgh Live, the review read: “Disappointing, at nearly £300 a night I didn’t expect to have a view of bins and rubbish. Absolutely nothing special about this hotel, we had a three night stay and my summary is decidedly average.

“If you do have to stay here I’d suggest ensuring you ask for a room without the depressing view. Edinburgh is a beautiful city but we felt as though we were staying somewhere dreadful.”

The customers attached two pictures of the view from their window which included a row of communal bins used by the hotel as well as a number of wooden pallets.

In response to the review, a member of staff from the hotel said: “Many thanks for staying recently and thank you for taking the time to leave a review. I am very sorry to read that your recent stay didn't meet your expectations.

A pile of wooden pallets were also visible from their window. (Image: Edinburgh Live)

"It's our sincerest wish to make our visitors feel at home, in the most comfortable and luxurious way possible, and I can only apologise that the issues you've raised prevented that. Please can you email our customer care team with the full details of where and when you stayed and your booking details so that we can investigate, you can contact us by going to our hotel’s website, if you scroll to the bottom of the page, you will see a button to ‘Contact Us’ there you will then see a section where you can click to “email us."

“I very much hope you'll be able to return to a Leonardo hotel soon and we'll be able to start to improve your journey as a customer.”

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The hotel has four and a half stars out of five on TripAdvisor with the vast majority of reviewers selecting ‘Excellent’ or ‘Very Good’ when leaving a review. One couple who stayed recently for their honeymoon left five stars and said: “My husband and I stayed here for our honeymoon. The experience was amazing.

"The staff was especially helpful and knowledgeable about the area. Particularly those in the guest services. They gave the best suggestions that made our stay even more special. Our only regret is that we did not stay longer. This is a beautiful hotel in a beautiful area. We will certainly be returning.”

While another said: “This hotel is so nice. Great find. Came for three nights Sunday. The staff are so polite and made sure we had everything we needed. It was my husband's birthday so they gave him a voucher for a free drink.

“Our room was so nice comfortable warm and inviting. I know some people don’t go away for a tv but I could stream my programmes to catch up. Breakfast was a massive choice and very tasty it was too.

“Hotel bar warm relaxing great knowledgeable friendly staff, try a whisky from their top shelf you won’t be disappointed. Reception staff were very friendly too and had a chat about football. Overall a fantastic stay and will be back.”