My fiance and I stayed for two nights during the fringe festival in 2005. We arrived and were greeted by two very young ladies working behind reception who spoke very broken English. We were pointed in the direction of our room, which was bang next to the bar. It was clean but very shabby. I decided to have a lie down after travelling for five hours and found the wooden bed frame creaked if you so much as breathed in. The bathroom was also very small. My fiance had rung ahead to ask for some roses to be present in the room for me on our arrival, which they were- and very beautiful at that. The mattress had a large dip in the middle which made my fiance and I roll together in a heap (I kid you not). We settled down for the night after exploring Edinburgh and discovered whilst getting ready for bed the door to our room had a 2inch gap from the floor and all the smoke from the bar seeped through the gap as well as hearing everyones conversations and the bed creaking we didnt dare move. In the morning the two young ladies knocked on our door, we were still in bed so shouted "just a minute" but they opened the door and walked in anyway. We didnt try breakfast, we wouldnt have had a clue where it was served anyway, apart from the two young ladies we saw no other staff throughout our stay. For the two nights I paid £280. We have never and will not stay here again as frankly the decor was very shabby, and the hotel was very run down, it could do with a really good face lift.

We stayed for two nights in November. On arrival we were met by a Chinese member of staff who spoke very poor English.

On entering the room which was reasonably clean, it was obvious the heating had not been on for some time and was not switched on all night, leading to a very cold night given the draft from the windows. The bathroom was even colder again and not helped by the shower which was alternating between ice cold and blisteringly hot, the flow was slow and more akin to a drizzle.

The icing on the cake however was the poor breakfast, which was meagre and for some reason included spring rolls and curried samosa. The breakfast staff were non English speaking and could not understand simple requests such as more milk, all questions were responded with by a shrugg and a smile. We also had the privilege of having breakfast with the owners children.

In all a very poor set up given it cost almost £200 for two nights due to the price increase because a rugby Game was on.

Best advice, go camping its' warmer.

I booked the room a week in advance confirmed the booking
read the followingresponse to,

I have had to cancel the booking because of the difficulty in travel to London from the United States due to the elevated threat level.

Given the circumstances and the fact that I plan to reschedule my trip I hardly think this is a fair treatment of a potential return customer. I would like to have my Cancellation charge refunded.
I am planning to re book over the winter holiday between December 18th through January 1st 2007 for 2+ days in Scotland. Corstorphine House Hotel will not be on my list if I don't receive a refund.
Corstorphine House Hotel
> Booking reference XXXXX73537
> Customer name R C
> Check-in Sunday, August 20, 2006
> Check-out Tuesday, August 22, 2006 Total cost £238.0
> Cancellation policy
> Cancellation policies vary from hotel to hotel and vary during fair and exhibition periods. Please read the hotel policy, below, to confirm whether your credit card will be charged a cancellation fee or a non-refundable deposit. In the event of a no show or a cancellation with less than 31 day notice prior to the date of arrival, an amount equivalent to 100% of the total booking value will be charged.
> Is there a cancellation charge if I cancel now?
> A cancellation charge applies because the required notice has not been given
> How is the cancellation charge calculated?
> The cancellation fee is 100% of the total booking price
> Cancellation charge if cancelled now £238.00
> Refund if cancelled now £0.00
Given that I booked within the 31 day notice period I could hardly meet the terms of the cancelation policy.
Traveler beware if you should book rooms at Corstorphine House and have elevated threat levels delay or affect your travel plans. They should refund their prospective guests booking fees .
This policy leaves a bad taste and a lasting impression of Scottish Hospitality.

In summary, our stay at Corstorphine was dissappointing. On arrival we found the owner to be uninviting and greeted us with "what do you want?". The general state of the house and garden was messy and you certainly wouldn't want to spend any time in the private gardens. The room was small with one little window in the ceiling but in all fairness, it was clean and adequate. The kitchen lady was grumpy and rude and the young girls who worked for her were clearly intimidated. Considering there are so many options for accommodation in this area, I would not stay here again.