Northumberland Hotel

What People are saying

Terribly rude staff, NO DISABLED ACCESS AS ADVERTISED!

Amber B on 08/12/2017 12:07

We have stayed here multiple times in past - before the management had changed, and due to disability access needed, the building is a town house with stairs so we have always reserved the ground floor room with no issue. Service under the old management was always lovely, and a great breakfast however I can't give any positives on the new management.

Booked for one night with disabled access months ago to visit for daughters 20th birthday, made multiple emails and calls to the hotel to double check our room was definitely the ground floor and was reassured each time. Arrived to find out, we were on the above floor as new management reserve the ground room only for 'long term stays' - this is so stupid as they ADVERTISE AS DISABILITY FRIENDLY but simply are not at all. Hence suggesting the person should climb the stairs even after saying multiple times this was not possible, very insensitive. Reinforcing I was assured 4 times over further contact that we had the ground floor accessible room.

Were left frantically trying to find another room over a family meal - daughter called to complain and the staff had no sympathy, she said we would be leaving a review and now can't find the business on Facebook whereas we can? I further had to fork out extra money - the hotel said it would be about £150 elsewhere but we managed to find a better deal.

A shame to run such a formerly nice business to the ground, taking away from what previous staff have built up. Thanks to the Queens Guest House who saved the night but still an unnecessary amount of stress on a family day. Can't believe how awful and horrible staff were.

Needs updating to say the least!

Stutrace1 on 28/10/2017 08:58

We've just returned from seeing family in Edinburgh & we had the misfortune of booking in with the Northumberland Hotel! The whole place needs renovating, redecorating & some proper cleaners! We stayed for four nights, breakfast was an extra charge,(which we didn't bother with)! You are charged an extra £3:00 for Wifi, (which was crap in my personal opinion). The beds weren't changed the whole time we were there, nor was the room hoovered or the tiny bathroom floor cleaned the whole time we were there either! And for the price we paid it was definitely not worth it! Avoid at all costs.

Left bad taste in the mouth..

lydia7491 on 25/10/2017 01:56

We stayed here in October in a family room for two nights. First impressions were fine, the receptionist very friendly. However the shower cabinet was quite shoddy and we were kept awake on the second night by a hoard of drunk people who seemed to be noisily trying to get into their rooms without success at 4am. However on checking out we asked if we could leave our bags for a few hours. Another man who seemed to be in charge said yes that was fine, and only asked when we would be back. When we returned a few hours later to collect our bags we were told there would be a charge of £7.50! This was not mentioned at the time and we felt we had been conned. To annoy guests with extra unmentioned charges like this is no way to run a business!

Staff are pleasant but the management could give lessons on how to irritate guests.

Paul F on 15/10/2017 18:15

We stayed 2 nights for a family visit. The staff were fine, the rooms were ok, but the shower cabins were blocked in both rooms we stayed in and there was a sewage smell. During the second night there were drunken people running about at 3am knocking on doors. Just to irritate us as we left, we were charged 7.50GBP extra because we had left a bag under the stairs for a few hours. Management like to give customers a kick in the teeth as they leave. No way to run a business.

Poorly managed!

W11KSD on 30/09/2017 11:00

Visited the Northumberland Hotel in Edinburgh late September for a two night stay. We had travelled down from the Highlands en route back to Manchester and wanted somewhere just outside the city. The location is good, roughly 25 minute walk into the city. Plenty of buses passing the front of the establishment too. The area is very affluent with some very nice B&Bs to choose from. Sadly as we had left it a little late all of the nice ones were booked and we had to settle for the Northumberland.

Upon arrival we were greeted by three middle eastern people, 2 men and a lady who were extremely friendly and offered advice on how to travel into town. It was too early to check in and we asked if could leave our car in the carpark and come back later to check in, this was accommodated, however, the three people questioned what time we would be coming back to check in " it won't be after 9pm will it?" we were asked. We stated that it would be a lot earlier than that. We checked in at around 7pm to another friendly welcome and were told that the desk is unmanned from 10pm (thus the previous question)The accommodation was on the first floor room 11 at the front of the building. The room was basic but clean, and the bathroom tiny with signs of diy plumbing and not overly clean. We hadn't paid much for the room so weren't too upset. The road at the front is very busy and with the lack of double glazing was a little noisy so I would suggest asking for a room at the rear of the property.

We booked room only and were offered breakfast which we declined and were told that wifi was free downstairs but were offered it for £3 per day in our room, we again declined (luckily as we could get the wifi in the room anyway 😀).

Day 2 we went out early at around 0800 as we wanted to see as much of Edinburgh as possible, so after showering and going back out to eat we came back around 2130. We wanted an early night in readiness for the journey home the following morning. Well that was never going to happen! At around 2215 a group of 30 or so school children congregated outside the front of the building making a lot of noise as un supervised children do. Shortly after 2230 all hell broke loose, the children were running up and down the stairs and corridors trying door handles banging on doors and hitting radiators which vibrated through each room. I left it a little while expecting the teachers or even the management to intervene and establish some calm, this never happened so at around 2300 I got dressed and challenged the children myself. They were very shocked to see me as if they were under the impression that the B&B was solely for them! After I had spoken with them 'politely but firmly' the noise subsided, for a while! I imagine I had got the message through to the children on our floor but the children on other floors still thought it was 'their' playground.

At around 2330 I got back up, dressed again and proceeded to venture back out. This time I was in luck, I saw a 'young' adult who I asked was the adult in charge? He sheepishly replied that he was.......well it turns out that it was a school group from South Africa (church group I think) and I suspect the teacher will tell the tale of the extremely irate 'Manc' that he met in a corridor in an Edinburgh B&B, as didn't hold back, needless to say that the noise dissipated very soon after our conversation.

The following morning we proceeded to check out and were met by one of the 'staff members' from the previous day. I informed him that we were not happy that such a large group of minors were allowed to check in so late the previous night and told him of my altercations with his new guests. He offered no apology and asked which room we were in, we suspect he was going to offer to move us??? We explained that were checking out, thus the cases and bags in our hands!! I stated that there should have been a member of staff available 'after checking the school children in' to oversee the process as the teachers were 'over run', rather than disappearing as close to 10pm as possible (see 2nd paragraph) Again, no apology was offered but a statement of 'it is what it is'. The man said that he would report it to the management, but my partner and I strongly suspected that he was indeed the management.

We can't comment on the breakfast but after talking with another guest in the carpark about his lovely vehicle which was a Morgan, he said it wasn't up to much and we lucky to have declined.

Sorry for the long winded review but we are back in Manchester now and guess what, it's raining.