Virgin Hotels opens in Edinburgh

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

• Peggerz says:

  4 Jun4 June 09:05

  I can promise you Rob, the fee for the upper end of Edinburgh hotels does not make Virgin India Buildings too chunky. I was in the Rocco Forte Balmoral yesterday and they are very busy. And their prices are pretty chunky too.
  Also (as I noted in the Accor thread yesterday) the new Gleneagles Townhouse on St. Andrew Square opens to the general public on Monday. It looks great.

• Colin MacKinnon says:

  4 Jun4 June 09:59

  Edinburgh hotels are interesting now:

  Next Saturday: Holiday Inn Express in Picardy Place, £288 for the night. Kimpton £317. If an IHG galactic platinum then I am sure an extra two quality breakfasts is worth the £29 difference!
  (The IC George is sold out)
  It was the same a couple of weekends ago.

  Even the weekend after it is £218 for the HIE and £331 for the Kimpton.

  (Tonight, the HIE is actually dearer than the Kimpton! Yep: £358 compared to £340!)

  My thoughts: despite the queues and chaos, people aren’t actually travelling abroad on holiday. They are booking short weekend breaks in the UK – and they just don’t know the difference between all the confusing brands. They just assume – it makes an Ass out of U and Me! – a Holiday Inn is good value.

  My pal just bought a ticket from Scotland to Malaga last week for Tuesday with Ryanair: £16.99 plus luggage. I think that means the airlines are still finding it hard to get customers.

  • Will says:

    4 Jun4 June 10:21

    Can’t speak of flights but hotels I’ve been looking at in Majorca and the Algarve are very expensive relative to pre turbo money printing days.

    There appears to be lots of people out there with a good chunk of cash to spend.

  • qrfan says:

    4 Jun4 June 10:35

    The headlines are always about the peak school holiday travel days or when ba has a meltdown. Midweek on a non school holiday day is still going to be quiet and affordable. I’m not sure that supports a hypothesis that people aren’t traveling abroad.

  • Matarredondaaa says:

    4 Jun4 June 12:10

    Ryanair Malaga/London flights are at a crazy level even for Nov.
    Suspect your friend might have flown from Prestwick as always cheap

    • Erico1875 says:

      4 Jun4 June 19:53

      6 to 8 weeks is the optimum Ryanair price historically.
      Ryanair have opened a base in Newcastle which has pulled the Scottish prices down a bit during July.
      PMI was £16 base fare from NCL end of June which is start of Edinburgh trades fortnight

  • Harry T says:

    4 Jun4 June 15:26

    A cursory glance at hotel prices on the continent this summer Vs last year will dispossess you of any beliefs regarding a dearth of intra European travel.

    • dougzz99 says:

      4 Jun4 June 16:06

      Things are possibly changing. I’m not convinced high prices equate to high occupancy, as was previously always accepted. I travel more in US than Europe, I’m seeing toppy hotel prices and then sparse number of people at pool or breakfast, plenty of parking space. Collecting hire car see packed lots, but prices remain stubbornly high. Not evidence I know, but I’m wondering if the economic model is changing in some way.

      • Rob says:

        4 Jun4 June 17:37

        Very likely because the hotel is not fully staffed so has raised prices to choke off demand and so only part fill

      • ianM says:

        4 Jun4 June 20:02

        Same with restaurants in the US – wait for 30 minutes while only half the tables are occupied. No staff.

• Froggee says:

  4 Jun4 June 10:25

  Edinburgh is definitely busy. Based upon how busy OneSpa (Sheraton Grand) is on Fridays with people who look a bit confused where they are going, I suspect there are a lot of long weekenders too. I’ve actually stopped going on a Friday morning as it can be difficult to do laps in the pool.

• RussellH says:

  4 Jun4 June 10:25

  Looking at next weekend in Edinburgh…

  Indigo York Place is 59 000 points or £262, while the HIX on the Royal Mile is 86 000 or £332!!!

  The Holiday Inn by the zoo (which is where we have stayed a few times in the past [very easy to get to either by car or by train to Haymarket with a bus stop outside] is 38 000 or £163.

  Been looking at prices in Germany over the last few days. We have 2 nights in the HIX in Baden-Baden for 39 000 points. Seems a much better idea!

• Graeme says:

  4 Jun4 June 10:41

  Only a quarter of the rooms will be open in the Virgin hotel by next week, it will be the end of the summer before it fully opens, which, from my understanding will be to huge fanfare. I know Virgin want to be charging £400+ for the basic room once fully open.

• NorthernLass says:

  4 Jun4 June 10:50

  I’ve got a weekend in Edinburgh booked in the autumn – it’s costing less to use an Ambassador 2nd night free at The George than to pay for 2 nights at the HIE!

  • NorthernLass says:

    4 Jun4 June 10:52

    Plus presumably as Diamond I will get breakfast included at the George so the HIE can’t even claim superiority there!

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      5 Jun5 June 19:20

      That’s a number of nights (40?) benefit not a Diamond benefit afaik

      • NorthernLass says:

        6 Jun6 June 16:02

        It’s the much-discussed Diamond welcome amenity from this week.

• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  4 Jun4 June 14:18

  Shame the Virgin Hotel Edinburgh didn’t do the same as the Virgin Hotel Las Vegas and join the Curio Collection. The way current prices are in Edinburgh the only way I’d likely stay in any is on points.

  When I was passing through Edinburgh recently all the hotels (even by the airport) were so costly I ended up booking the DoubleTree in North Queensferry which was reasonably priced. It’s not too far from the airport in a taxi

  • Graeme says:

    4 Jun4 June 16:06

    Also, the direct 747 bus to/from the Airport (GBP 8 last time I used it) stops literally outside the DT Queensferry on the Forth Road Bridge north access.

• MrMcNeill says:

  4 Jun4 June 18:15

  It’s still Espionage nightclub to me and always will be, also it was free entry not £300 a night lol
  “Hands AFF our city Branson, bad enough you changed Clydesdale Bank (my bank) to virgin and the service and waiting time is shocking! Suppose money talks and the rest of us get no say in anything, same as building more and more un needed student accommodation everywhere!

  • Erico1875 says:

    4 Jun4 June 20:21

    Was it not “The Place” back in the late 80s?

    • Erico1875 says:

      4 Jun4 June 20:24

      Nicky Tams springs to mind too.

  • Andrew. says:

    4 Jun4 June 20:41

    Loved Espionage.

    When will Branson get his portrait on the Clydesdale notes?

  • RussellH says:

    5 Jun5 June 10:21

    My Clydesdale Bank card has a paper sticker on it saying Clydesdale Bank, in case I think it is a Virgin Credit Card. Childish, I know, particularly as I hardly ever use the card, but still…

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