Merith House Hotel - Edinburgh, United Kingdom 

Friends don't let friends stay at the Merith House Hotel- it's dirty and scary
Posted: Sat, Oct 14 2006
Let me start by saying that I am not a picky person. I have been traveling on a budget and am used to small but clean and safe rooms. This hotel was terrifying. I had been traveling all day so by the time I got there it was about 11 or 12 at night. I walked the stairs up to my room and opened the door and almost cried. As a young female traveling alone, I seen some pretty awful places. However, this place takes the cake. The floors were so creaky and saggy I thought they were going to give out under me. The walls were so thin, I could hear the person in the next room over from me turning in bed, and I could hear the TV of another person in the morning. The shower curtain had stains on it, and there were huge, very visible cobwebs in the corners of the room. I only had to stay there for one night, thank god. The hotel is also located in a very sketchy area and right next to the road so I could hear semi trucks driving by all night. I felt unsafe and dirty and I would NOT recommend this place to anyone. The next day I transfered to the Harvest Guest House, a little B&B in Portobello, and it was HEAVEN compared to this place. Run for your lives, do NOT stay here. I have pictures I can submit once my laptop has internet access.

Avoid the Merith at all Costs!!!
Posted: Thu, Sep 28 2006
Had to make a last minute booking through late rooms, Edinburgh was fairly busy so we had to take pot luck. We were charged £85 for a "family room" with "en Suite". The room was fairly spacious up in the rafters with one double & three single beds. The place was filthy, carpet had probably never been cleaned. Every corner was full of filith if you dared to look. There were tea stains on the walls. The bedside cabinets had drawers which due to the unlevel floor came open all the time so they were wedged shut with sugar sachets!! The beds were hard, the bedding dated & thin & I'm not convinced that it had been freshly laundered. The en suite was equally filthy & there was quite a selection of flora & forna growing in the shower. The shower controls were useless, it was either scalding or freezing. When sitting on the toilet if the door was shut it squashed your knees! The standard of the hotel put us off attempting breakfast in the morning, which by the way 8.30am was the last available time for taking breakfast. Payment was taken on arrival with a 2% charge for credit cards. Had we not been a family with 2 small children who needed a bed late in the day there is no way that we would have stayed. Places like this should be condemned & I can't believe that the tourist office would accredit it with even 1 star hotel status.

Filthy !!
Posted: Mon, Sep 18 2006
Booked via laterooms and I guess should have expected what I got given that the hotel still had many empty rooms during the festival. Was on the top floor in a single room and I could touch both walls without moving. The window did not shut and the door did not fit the frame so there was actually wind blowing through the room. The lampshade had some kind of spillage on it and the wardrobe was broken. It had someone else's clothes in as well. The bedsheets were threadbare and the 'shared' bathrooms were disgusting, and the floor covered in water or urine. I made sure that I visited the bathroom elsewhere before returning to the hotel which I spen 4 miserable days in. The TV was a joke and there were insects in the room.

Melanie Steele
Posted: Mon, Sep 04 2006
The Merith House is located overlooking Leith Links. My room looked out onto the Links and it was a lovely view. The room that I had was spacious and the staff were very very friendly and helpful. The breakfast facilities were great too. Great value for money.