Name: Ivy Braveheart Guesthouse
Address: 26 Gilmore Place, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH3 9NQ, United Kingdom
Rating: 7

Smoke-free property

Heating

General

Non-smoking rooms

Family room

Rooms

Safe-deposit box

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

English

Languages Spoken

Family/Kid Friendly

Kids

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the guest house

Forth and Clyde and Union Canals Trail

Gambado

FountainPark

Flodden Wall

Holy Corner

Gillis Centre

George Heriot’s School

St George's West Church

Edinburgh Gin Distillery

Edinburgh Castle

Johnnie Walker Princes Street

Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre

Camera Obscura and World of Illusions

National Museum of Scotland

National Gallery of Scotland

Museum on the Mound

Princes Street Gardens

Royal Scottish Academy Art Gallery

St. Giles' Cathedral

Edinburgh Dungeon

Scott Monument

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

Calton Hill

Our Dynamic Earth

Palace of Holyroodhouse

Arthur's Seat

Royal Botanic Garden

Holyrood Park

Edinburgh Zoo

Royal Yacht Britannia

Edinburgh Airport

Dundee Airport

Celtic Park

Glasgow Necropolis

Glasgow Cathedral

St Mungo's Museum of Religious Life and Art

People's Palace and Winter Gardens

Glasgow Green

George Square

Gallery of Modern Art

Buchanan Galleries

Royal Concert Hall

Pavilion Theatre

Lighthouse

Centre for Contemporary Art

Botanic Gardens

Hunterian Museum

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Glasgow Science Centre

Tall Ship at Glasgow Harbour

Ivy Braveheart Guesthouse

Edinburgh

Basic room which has seen better days. Tiny en suite, but did the job. Average level of cleaning and care. It is on a fairly busy road and as it was warm we had to keep the window open.  There aren’t any curtains, just wooden shutters, which We had to leave open slightly to keep the air flowing so couldn’t shut out the traffic noise or the early morning light. 
Everything was done via messages including getting your room key from a coded box, which is fine as long as you don’t have any questions. 
Location is fine if you don’t mind a 15 min Ish walk to the Royal Mile.

Basic on a fairly busy main road. Could do with a bit of TLC.

Well this was definitely a night to remember, not sure we want to tho. So after a double booking on our original hotel, booking.com gave us this guest house as an alternative. 
Let's start with the good points, it was withing a 15 to 20 min walk from Princess St so central enough to be a good location! That's where the good points end.
Like a lot of guest houses in big city's it looked OK nothing startling but as you would expect, we went inside and to be fair was again like most a little bit on the tatty side but your not staying in a fancy hotel and it's not about the lobby or stairs it's about your room.
We climbed the stairs to the first floor and found our room no 15 great! We unlocked the door and entered to be hit with what instantly smelled like bleach, but there was something not right with it, it was so strong but there was something mixed in with the bleach smell, we looked around and the room is extremely dated but on the surface looked clean, we dumped our stuff and went to the ensuite for the toilet before we headed to the Christmas markets and wow!!!! The smell intensified. We headed out and done the Christmas markets, had a couple of drinks and headed back to be honest forgetting about the smell until we entered the room again and boom it hit us again this weird bleachy smell it actually made us feel sick and a bit nauseous but knowing I'd had a drink we were stuck! The more we spent time in there the more you can tell that the bleach smell is trying to hide another unknown smell. 
We eventually after a fair few more wines fell asleep or passed out not sure, we woke in the morning opened the shutters and in the daylight seen the stains on the side of the mattress,  we checked out and for the rest of the day could smell this awful smell on our clothes, we did not find the cause of the smell as to be honest I didn't want to know. 
If your a fan of the films Trainspotting and Hostel and fancy a slice of them in real life then this is the place for you, but if your moderately sane with even just the slightest sence of smell avoid!!!!! Just to add insult to injury it was £172 per night for to be honest a £20 per night at most guest house, please do yourself a favour and save your money buy a sleeping bag and camp down with the others sleeping in doorways you will thank me.

If you like the film Trainspotting or Hostel and fancy the real life experience this is the place for you!!!

Unknown to me there was a change of ownership of this guesthouse, luckily I phoned up two days before for a query  I had only to be told the ownership had changed and I needed to contact the previous owner, which I did and got a partial refund but not the commission charged through booking.com, the owner said I had to get this from the booking company and the booking company said I needed to get it from the property owner so I have been left out of pocket as he is now responding to my emails.  This is a unique situation but wondered if anyone else went through this as I had booked three rooms before the pandemic and got a voucher to be used within 2 years and this was the result

Change of ownership in January left me out of pocket minus commission fee for booking agent

Excellent base to explore Edinburgh. Short walk from the centre and close to all amenities such as food and drink places, park, supermarket etc. Clean room, very quiet at night, good shower and bathroom. There was kettle and tea/ coffee provision too: Great value and would recommend.

Clean and quiet guest house

Room and bathroom full of spiders and cobwebs. Strong smell of damp/mould in the bedroom. Bedroom window does not stay open (not ideal since there is no functioning extractor fan in the bathroom). Whole place in need of some TLC. The worst thing was that they had the cheek to charge £150/night (admittedly during the Fringe). Avoid this place and stay elsewhere.

Avoid.

We booked this hotel under the impression it’s was a 4 star (what it was rated on booking.con) but turns out it was a 3 star, the manager seemed friendly enough, only saw him twice and no other member of staff. The room was very old fashioned and very dusty. There was a funny old smell in the building. No clean towels was replaced. There was a very old and stained bath mat to step out of the shower on that we didn’t use. It was stained with brown marks, it wasn’t acceptable. Beds were ok, but nothing smelt fresh. 
We were charged £100 per night per person (£600) for 3 of us. It was just somewhere to sleep at the end of the day but for cleanliness and the location, I think this was far to much to be charged. The view was of building works and on a busy road. I wouldn’t stay there again or recommend to anyone. 
It is walkable into a Edinburgh town (25 mins I would say) however, easier to get cabs as it’s a little out the way. When we checked out, the manager came out and said goodbye but nothing was asked about our stay and how we found the room etc. photos from a year ago compared to now, is very deceiving. No parking on site.

2 night stay in Edinburgh and the Ivy Braveheart hotel

I do not like leaving negative reviews but this hotel was not great.  It is a very old building and had some character but it needs a lot of updating and some fixing up.  Our room was very dated and quite dusty, it needed a good all over clean. The bathroom didn’t smell great (really musty) and there was mould around the shower.  The shower was good, lovely and warm but I would expect it to be cleaner.  The windows were really old and single glazed and weather was cold so the room took a while to warm up, they did provide another radiator which we had to use.  Positive note, the bed was actually really comfy and we did sleep well.  You do hear a lot of outside noise with it being close to a busy road but that didn’t bother us too much.  There was a kettle with tea and coffee but we were disappointed as the milk was not topped up daily so we couldn't have any more hot drinks which I think is bad ( I kept forgetting to stop and get milk when out).  The location was quite good, for the castle 15mins to walk it.  Parking was in a multi storey which was 5mins walk from hotel, think we paid £50 for whole stay but remember that’s extra expense.
Overall, we had a fantastic time in Edinburgh it’s a lovely city but I wouldn’t recommend this hotel.  I would pay more money for a nicer hotel that is a bit more central.  I understand business has been affected by Covid but I think some fresh paint on the walls, some updates to furniture and really good cleaning would do wonders for this hotel.

Pay more for nicer hotel

We enjoyed our stay here, the staff were friendly and the beds were super comfy. The room although quite small was just what we needed for the weekend. The TV didn't work very well, but this wasn't an issue as we didn't watch any real time tv, we just watched catch up on our phones. We told the lady of this before we left, so hopefully it is now fixed. We didn't have breakfast here, so can't comment on that. Very good location, we walked everywhere we wanted to go from here. Would stay again.

Pleasant Stay

Me and a couple mates were heading down to Edinburgh for a couple of days and decided to stay at the Braveheart. Checking in was quick, easy and efficient and the staff were really friendly and made our stay incredibly pleasant, this was our first time in Edinburgh too and the Braveheart had a genuinely welcoming and cosy atmosphere. The rooms were perfectly adequate for what we were looking for, the beds were comfy, the WIFI was decent and the bathroom was clean. The purpose of our trip was to look around the city and due to its excellent location this was made easy for us. It was about a fifteen minute walk to Bristo Square so we found that really useful. The best part for me was the six pound breakfast,  really good range of food available and was warm, fresh coffee, the entire guest house was really good value for money. Thanks again for the experience! 5/5

Really excellent guesthouse

I stayed three nights with my wife and my granddaughter who attends college in this city. The location is convenient but the room on the third floor is small for three adults. The floor with carpets in some places torn. Breakfast not included in the price that seems excessive for what you're offered.

Ivy Braveheart Guesthouse

Main amenities of the guest house

Location

Available rooms

Location

Description of the guest house

What other amenities are there?

Policies

Check-in terms and conditions

Additional information

Payment