Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Review: the ‘extended stay’ Residence Inn Edinburgh hotel (Part 2)

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

This is Part 2 of our review of Marriott’s Residence Inn extended stay hotel in Edinburgh.

Part 1 of our Residence Inn Edinburgh review is here.

The hotel website is here if you want to learn more.

The bedroom

The bedroom is smaller than you would normally find in a hotel since you also have a large living room (Rob found the same when he toured Residence Inn Kensington recently):

Residence Inn Edinburgh suite bedroom

You also get a TV, Mirror and mini ledge-desk-thingy with stool. To the right of the queen size bed is a large wardrobe with plenty of storage – more than I have at home, to be honest.

Residence Inn Edinburgh suite bed

Connectivity is good, although there are only plugs and USB sockets on the right hand side of the bed.

Interestingly, the suite doesn’t seem to have air conditioning. Instead, you can manually adjust the radiators in each room. This makes a lot of sense, I think – especially when you consider the weather in Scotland.

Bathroom

An interesting approach has been taken to the bathroom. Instead of having the shower / bath, toilet and sink in a separate room, only the bath and toilet are separated, with the sink open to the hallway:

Residence Inn Edinburgh suite bathroom

I’m not sure why this was done, but I equally can’t particularly see a reason why not. The mirror above the sink conceals a large cupboard for storing toiletries etc – another nice touch for an extended stay hotel.

Toiletries are mint-scented by Essential Elements and make you feel like you are showering with a Kendal mint cake! This is the standard brand across Residence Inn.

The kitchen and living room

The largest room in the suite, by far, is the kitchen-living room. This is the size of both the bedroom and bathroom combined:

Residence Inn Edinburgh suite living room 2

It looks like you can connect more than one suite as well, judging by the door in the photo above.

As you can see, there is a ‘proper’ desk as well as a fairly large sofa and armchair with laptop stand. The kitchen hugs the back wall:

Residence Inn Edinburgh suite living room

…. and comes equipped with half-size fridge, half-size oven and full-size dishwasher.

Residence Inn is designed for longer, partly self-catered stays, and so supplies all the basics you might require:

Residence Inn Edinburgh suite pots pans

and

Residence Inn Edinburgh suite cutlery

You won’t be winning Masterchef any time soon but it’s enough to be able to look after yourself.

All Residence Inn hotels have a free shopping service. You can give the hotel staff your grocery list and they will buy it for you from a local shop and deliver it to your fridge.

(To be perfectly honest, Residence Inn should consider partnering with Hello Fresh or similar meal subscription services – it’s exactly the sort of thing that would work well here.)

You also get some basic tea making facilities, although don’t expect anything other than instant coffee, as there isn’t a coffee machine:

Residence Inn Edinburgh suite kettle toaster

Breakfast

Whilst there’s no restaurant, the hotel offers a free breakfast. In normal times this includes a hot and cold selection served in the hotel lobby.

Right now, the Residence Inn Edinburgh is only serving its grab and go bag. All you do is fill out an order form the night before. You can choose from a range of pastries, yoghurt, cereal, fruit, marmalade / cheese and tea, coffee or juices.

This is what I opted for:

Residence Inn Edinburgh breakfast

The pastries are baked freshly on site each morning – mine was still warm.

Conclusion

Whilst not designed for short city breaks – although you are free to just stay for one night if you wish – the Residence Inn Edinburgh is a great option if you need to stay close to the university.

It also makes a lot of sense if you have children. The additional space afforded by the Residence Inn, and a separated living and sleeping area, should appeal to families.

My only complaint – and this is completely out of the hotel’s control – was the noisy builders who, on my first morning, decided it was a great idea to do what sounded like pile driving on the university building next door at 7am.

Rates currently start from £70 per night for a studio or £100 for a suite for Marriott Bonvoy members although current pricing is not necessary typical. In September you are looking at £145 – £175 per night.

(To be frank, £100 for a one bedroom suite here is exceptionally good value for money if you are heading to Edinburgh soon.)

The Residence Inn Edinburgh is a Category 5 hotel, which means you’ll need 30,000 to 40,000 Bonvoy points per night. Given our standard value of 0.5p per Bonvoy point, cash is currently the better option.

You can find out more, and book, on the hotel website here.

Thanks to Marriott for hosting me. As usual, HfP paid for all of its other costs including my flight to Edinburgh.

Looking for hotel in Edinburgh?

You’ve come to the right place: we have reviewed a range of Edinburgh hotels (click to read):


How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (December 2024)

There are various ways of earning Marriott Bonvoy points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

The official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card comes with 20,000 points for signing up, 2 points for every £1 you spend and 15 elite night credits per year.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points for signing up and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points by converting American Express Membership Rewards points at the rate of 2:3.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Marriott Bonvoy Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.

We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

Huge 80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points indirectly:

and for small business owners:

The conversion rate from American Express to Marriott Bonvoy points is 2:3.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Marriott Bonvoy points

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Comments (51)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • meta says:

    I’m currently in Aberdeen one. Studio King suite. Bathrooms are much bigger. The views one are great as we are on the city side as opposed to looking at the office buildings. It’s perfect for us as on this trip as my partner and I are not spending much time in the room. I also stayed at Residence Inn Manhattan/Central Park on Marriott travel certificate. That one was much better in terms of breakfast quality, room furnishings and overall service. It was also nice to wake up seeing Central Park on one side and skyscrapers on the other side. If I didn’t have the certificate or points, I probably wouldn’t stay there as the cost was nearly $700 per night for our dates.

    • Michael C says:

      I was just looking at the one on 6th Av. (RI “Times Sq.”): it doesn’t look lovely, but I do love the idea of being next to Bryant Park at the end of the summer, and having the kitchenette for reheating stuff from Whole Foods round the corner!!

  • Andrew M says:

    The number 300 bus from the airport will take you to this hotel for £4.50. It takes a while to get there but at least it’s direct.

    • Rhys says:

      When I looked on Citymapper, every other means of transport was going to take over an hour. I’d rather take a cab and save 40+ minutes…

      • Andrew M says:

        It depends on the time of day. Outside rush hour it takes 45 minutes against say 25 for a taxi. I’d jump at saving £20 for a 20 minute extra journey time but then I’m Scottish!

    • Andrew says:

      I thought there was a tram from the airport to the city centre?

      • Andrew M says:

        This hotel is a bit of a walk, partly uphill, from the nearest tram stop. It wouldn’t really be practical with luggage. With a small bag only, you could probably walk from the nearest tram stop (Princes Street) in 10 minutes.

  • Memesweeper says:

    I’ve spent enough nights in the south London pair some staff know me by name and vice versa. They are both a bit shabby in places but for a work stay of a few days they are ideal. Back next week in fact. For some reason stays in this pair of hotels never credit to Bonvoy properly, and one still has a card machine ID which Amex does not recognise as Marriott.

    If you want a low-cost Marriott in Edinburgh with working aircon and a restaurant — with covered and heated terrace — you can’t go wrong with the Courtyard in Baxter’s Place.

    • E says:

      Agree on the aircon in the Courtyard being really efficient! And it’s more Bonvoy points as you get half as many Bonvoy points in a Residence Inn because Marriott classify RI as longer stay.

  • Scott says:

    Lack of air-conditioning is an issue – despite stereotypes it does get very hot and uncomfortable here (Scotland) in the summer at times and I really wouldn’t thank you for a non-AC room in that sort of weather!! Edinburgh tends to have better weather than Glasgow being in the east, so averages don’t necessarily apply…

    As an aside the best apartment style hotel I’ve stayed in (UK) was the Manchester Staybridge Suites which are now a Hyatt House, and outside the UK the brand new Hilton Homewood Suites in Ottawa – so new that we may have been the first guests in the massive top floor suite.

  • John says:

    I thought it was an American trait to sleep in icy conditions. I book hotels in winter because I want to sleep in a t-shirt

    • John says:

      Hi John 😀. It’s not so much the icy conditions. It’s more that I find a room over 21C often uncomfortable to sleep in. And it doesn’t take much to get a modern building with no air-con above that.

  • John says:

    I have real concerns about lack of aircon. Probably enough to put me off staying, TBH. Modern buildings like this can have really excellent insulation that makes things uncomfortably warm very quickly – yes, even in Edinburgh!

    • Harry T says:

      I had to check out of the Moxy York because it was so unbearably hot (mid to high 20s) with the windows open. They had air con that told you the temperature but would only heat the room, not cool it. Hotel didn’t even have a fan. To their credit, they didn’t charge me for the second night after I checked out early.

      • John says:

        Yeah anything above low 20s isn’t great for me TBH. I think there’s a real blind spot in the UK where these large buildings both generate and retain heat well, which is fine until you get to the evening and there’s no effective cooling, often because the windows will only open minimally, or you simply can’t create through ventilation. I’m out.

  • mutley says:

    Thanks Rhys, I think it looks great, when I travel to my Head office in the US for two/three week stays, I have used Both Residence Inn and Fairfield, and had no complaints in either.

  • Bagoly says:

    Rhys – kitchens have sinks; bathrooms have basins 🙂

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.