Edinburgh Marriott Hotel Holyrood launched

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• Andrew. says:

  22 Feb22 February 06:52

  On my Virgin Credit Card, I’m currently getting a 9% rebate on Virgin Train Ticketing.

  Donald Macdonald’s old place is indeed just a short walk from Waverley. As long as you exit from the south side and don’t try to to trek up the ramps or the bridge…

  (Just putting on my shoes here for my daily 8km walk to work.)

  • Andrew. says:

    22 Feb22 February 06:53

    That should have said “or the Waverley steps”

  • Colin_Thames says:

    22 Feb22 February 08:24

    I think you may be talking about the W hotel, which is a short walk. However, the Marriot Holyrood is quite a bit more of a hike. Come out of Waverley by East Market St exit, turn left, then right up Jeffrey St, across in St Mary’s St, then left into Holyrood Rd. It’s at the far end. I haven’t timed it myself but Google Maps says 12 minutes. Probably longer if you’re pulling a wheeled suitcase.
    A taxi would be 3 mins.

    • Andrew. says:

      22 Feb22 February 09:19

      My old firm had a negotiated rate, so the Macdonalds was a regular one for me.

      Out East Market Street, dash up one of the closes behind the old Carlton Highland depending on the NEDs & vagrants hanging around, then zig zag down.

      Google Maps are timed for slow walkers. It’s barely half a mile, so for me that’s about 7-8 minutes walk.

    • chris says:

      22 Feb22 February 10:30

      it’s less than a 10 minute walk, and it’s mostly downhill

• BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

  22 Feb22 February 07:36

  MBNA has regular 5% rebates on LNER.

  As does airtime rewards.

  And they stack.

  I’d rather have that than a few points.

• apbj says:

  22 Feb22 February 07:57

  The former Macdonald is a good new option for Marriott members as its location right next to the parliament at the very bottom of the Royal Mile is often overlooked, and the lower rates mean much better value on weekends when other options are insanely expensive.

  Spent many evenings in the lobby bar of the Macdonald as for a couple of years it was the only place where late shift workers at The Scotsman newspaper opposite could get a pint. Hotel never really had stellar success or much appeal. Hopefully it will do better as a Marriott option.

  • Andrew. says:

    22 Feb22 February 08:51

    The Scotsman moved out of Barclay House about 10 years ago. National World are based out of WeWork offices on George Street now.

  • Colin MacKinnon says:

    22 Feb22 February 15:28

    @apbj I only ever did a few evening shifts at the Evening News (when I had two mortgages!) so couldn’t afford the Macdonald!
    Went into the Jinglin’ Geordie for old times sake a few months ago at 10pm, and they were closing! Big change from after 1st edition at The Scotsman!

• daveinitalia says:

  22 Feb22 February 08:45

  The 10% back on Uber trains is very useful as it’s valid on future train travel or Uber car rides. You also get a tiny number of Avios too.

  If you have a Network Railcard (this railcard is open to all but is only valid in the former Network SouthEast area, it won’t save you anything outside of there) there’s a useful tip if you use the Elizabeth line to get from Heathrow to London.

  With a railcard it costs £10 for an off peak Z1-6 one day travelcard that will cover your Heathrow trip (on tube or Elizabeth line, NOT HEX) and all your TfL/local rail/bus travel within London. Please note on weekdays it’s only valid after 10:00

  The way you buy a travelcard in the Uber app is as follows:
  1. You must say you want a return (even if going one way) with outward and return in the same day. Make sure the outward is after 10:00 if travelling on a weekday, weekends it works all day
  2. You must put the start point as somewhere in the highest zone you need to travel (I use Heathrow Terminal 5), it also works for places just outside London (put it’s a bit more) so if you’re going to Gatwick put Gatwick airport as your from point even if it’s your end point
  3. Put the to as somewhere on the core of the Elizabeth line. Whitechapel works, some others may not be recognised. It doesn’t really matter you don’t have to go there
  4. Make sure you have selected the railcard option before proceeding
  5. There should be a travelcard £10 fare. If there’s not then you may have done something wrong.

  After travel you will get £1 back in Uber credits and a tiny amount of Avios.

  If you have a railcard that allows you to add to Oyster (unfortunately Network Railcard isn’t) you can ask at a TfL operated station to get your railcard added to Oyster which is less hassle than the paper tickets

  • memesweeper says:

    22 Feb22 February 09:29

    Hmmm. Why do I see an off-peak day travelcard as £15.20?

    • memesweeper says:

      22 Feb22 February 09:30

      Railcard didnt “save”. Good tip – thanks!

  • Rich_A says:

    22 Feb22 February 10:11

    You can also buy London Terminals to London Underground Zones 1-6. £7.95 for a single with a railcard.

    I’m still not sure if this is actually valid on the Liz to LHR. My research thought not, but the two NR ticket staff I asked said yes. The gate at T4 said no, but the guy manning it said OK.

    • daveinitalia says:

      22 Feb22 February 11:59

      The travelcard is definitely valid on the Elizabeth line but the single you mention is meant to be used on the tube (so it’s a good budget option, if you’re not using other TfL services that day so won’t get max use out of a travelcard). I think unless too many people do it then you’d get away with the single to Z1-6 because most staff at the barriers will see zone 6, know that Heathrow is zone 6 and will think it’s valid.

      As I usually have a bit of other travelling to do when I’m in London the £10 travelcard is perfect for me.

  • Tiberius says:

    22 Feb22 February 10:18

    That is very useful and a nice little trick while I will try out this weekend on my trip to heathrow.

    I have always meant to link my 16-25 railcard to an Oyster card which gives 1/3 off my commute to work but having to carry a physical oyster card is far too much hard work (and very odd I cant just add a digital Oyster to my phone!)

    • daveinitalia says:

      22 Feb22 February 12:01

      I guess the reason there’s no digital Oyster is because TfL launched contactless before Apple and Google Pay existed so there seemed no point integrating with the digital wallets when contactless worked for most non-season ticket cases.

      As there’s still a number of reasons to have a Oyster (railcard, season) hopefully it’ll happen sometime but with funding issues I doubt it’ll be a priority

• TGLoyalty says:

  22 Feb22 February 08:52

  Looks like the rooms are still being refurbished with only one category actually showing refurbished pics.

  I’d probably give this a wide berth for a while still.

  • Rhys says:

    22 Feb22 February 09:01

    I think the gallery is out of date. It does list “160 spacious newly refurbished en-suite rooms” on the website and the press release implies the refurbishment is fully complete.

    • daveinitalia says:

      22 Feb22 February 09:56

      It’s worth a review. You could fly up to EDI, maybe even from LCY as I wonder what the post-pandemic experience is like there. Then maybe get the train to NCL and that gives you the opportunity to review the LNER 1st class lounge in EDB (and NCL if you pop in after the train), the LNER 1st class service which changed sometime after COVID and the expanded Newcastle Aspire lounge which should be fully open soon.

      • Rob says:

        22 Feb22 February 10:03

        The Aspire CEO has offered us a tour of the NCL lounge when it is fully open, which will be 3 weeks time. Alternatively there will be an official launch party in April and we’ll go up for that.

        • daveinitalia says:

          22 Feb22 February 10:23

          Any idea the official first public day of operation will be? I will be in NCL at some point in April (and probably March) so if it happens to be open close to when I’m travelling it would make sense for me to arrange my travel when it’s fully open.

          AMS caught be by surprise, I’m going to Holland in April but by boat so won’t be anywhere near Schiphol. Reason for the boat is that it’s a cycling trip and it’s great to wake up in the morning, get breakfast just before arrival and then straight on the bike.

        • Rob says:

          22 Feb22 February 11:09

          He told me 3 weeks to go. The BA area is open, remember – I think we’re only waiting for the table service bit to be done, which will be for airlines who pay more.

        • daveinitalia says:

          22 Feb22 February 11:31

          Although the area that BA will use (and that area used to be their lounge) is open, it’s not the proper mid-tier experience. Currently the bit that used to be the main Aspire is the bit that’s getting refurbished. Currently there’s a temporary bar layout in this area.

          The mid-tier lounge will be self service when it opens properly and hopefully the catering will be improved too. The lower tier (PP) will still have a bar because in contract lounges bars are used to slow down your drinking not to enhance your experience.

          I’m not sure where the table service part will be but I suspect it’s in the area currently reserved for Emirates.

          My questions for opening will be:
          – How does the food in the mid-tier lounge compare to the basic lounge?
          – Champage/prosecco, is it chargeable like usual in an Aspire or will the mid-tier include premium drinks free?
          – What’s on the table service menu?
          – Can you upgrade at a discounted price to the top tier? I know some people paid (£15?) to upgrade to Aspire Plus in the past

    • Rob says:

      22 Feb22 February 10:02

      Website confirms everything is done and open from next Monday, but this seems to have been brought forward.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      22 Feb22 February 10:05

      It says all areas are now accessible

      Recent reviews from the last few days/even yesterday talk of lots of early noise by construction.

      But happy for you to try it first and report back 🙂

      • Rhys says:

        22 Feb22 February 10:54

        Assuming they did only finish yesterday then that would obviously make sense 🙂

        • TGLoyalty says:

          22 Feb22 February 23:37

          I see what you’re saying but it doesn’t sound like finishing touches.

          I’ve seen it at other properties. They seem to think no closed areas is refurbished not that rooms are still being done.

• tw33ty says:

  22 Feb22 February 13:02

  I hope they’ve vastly improved the old MacDonald hotel a lot with the refurbished, it was terribly dated and tatty beforehand.

• David says:

  22 Feb22 February 14:08

  Is there any difference between a Marriott executive lounge and an M club lounge?

  • Rob says:

    22 Feb22 February 14:42

    No

• Dylan Qubing-Griffiths says:

  23 Feb23 February 12:58

  An easy way to find out what is happening with hotels when it comes to refurbishments and rebrand, etc is to simply go on to the Planning Register of the council that the hotel is in. There you can you find all the drawings and plans for the hotel, including signage.

  You may need to be specific when finding the addresses etc so make sure the full address is placed in the search box. Sometimes, you can get away with just putting in a simple search term, such as ‘Marriott’ and it should come up.

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