Apex Grassmarekt Hotel

Overall a very nice hotel. The lobby was very nice and large with a decent bar, did not eat there although reviews for the food were good and the smell coming from the restaurant was amazing.
Staff was pleasant and efficient with check-​in and they had parking, which at 14 pounds a day seemed like a bargain coming from Seattle. The rooms were good sized and the beds were comfortable and clean, along with the bathroom. As mentioned in other reviews, no A/​C which seemed odd especially when you are paying top dollar for a room in the center Edinburgh. Although none of the hotels I stayed in in the UK had any A/​C. So like Seattle, maybe they don’t offer it because it does not get that warm, although at 400am when the bars let out, it would be nice to have to drown the noise out. Bring ear plugs, we were there during the Fringe and it was loud constantly. However we did have a fantastic view of the castle across the street, although I would have picked a back room in order to get better sleep.
As mentioned in my title, great location and within one block of the royal mile and a few miles from everything else. I did not use the car once while I was in Edinburgh.

Nice enough but don’t use their restaurant unless you have an extra 40 minutes to wait for your food. Breakfast took an Hour this morning.

Arriving at this hotel I was frustrated that I had to pack my suitcase up a couple flights of stairs before we got to an elevator but that was almost my only concern.
The room was great — love the duck! and the view amazing. Hotel staff attentive, friendly, professional, food lovely. I would come back any time and in fact want to go out of my way to come to this hotel again.
I had sent some laundry out for service and there must have been some miscommunication because it didn’t arrive back before I was schedule to depart. About ten days after arriving home my clothes arrived as they promised, all nice and clean.
thanks for the great stay and great service!

Ideally situated as a base for the city centre, with fantastic view of the castle, the hotel room was clean and comfortable, the staff were helpful and polite, the breakfast was lovely, though a busy times larger groups may have to wait to be seated, the bar was a pit pricy but all in all would definitely use this hotel again

The Apex doesn’t disappoint in terms of location. It’s right slap bang in the heart of Edinburgh on Grassmarket– perfect for Edinburgh festival or sightseeing action. The hotel and its rooms are spacious and modern. — we opted for a double room with two king size beds which were amazingly comfortable.
You either have a choice of rooms (odd numbered ones) with stunning views overlooking the Castle, but equally astounding sounds of the weekend on Grassmarket. The windows really didn’t seem to shut properly and did let in a lot of noise. You can ask reception for ear plugs. The even number rooms are much quieter but overlook the less beautiful carpark. Ahh decisions.
We moved rooms from an even to an odd number — and actually other parts of the room improved including the number of power points.
There were faulty lamps in the rooms and inconsistent house keeping. Sometimes we would get products (lovely Elemis), and sometimes we wouldn’t. Sometimes the towels will be on the bed, playing hide and seek instead of in the bathroom.
But that’s nit picking and overall we had a comfortable stay. Loved the jelly beans and hot chocolate provided complimentary in the room.

I stayed here one night. Really nice facilities, nice staff, delicious breakfast in the restaurant on the top floor. I mean, it’s a 4 star hotel. It’s pretty damn good.

Our last stop in Scotland was Edinburgh, and we were wowed by the city. The hotel was just ok.
One plus to our stay was the hotel’s great location, right in the center of the Grassmarket in Old Town. It’s a bit of a bar scene around the area, but we didn’t have any issues with noise like some of the other reviewers. We found this to be a convenient place to get to and from, within easy walking distance to the Royal Mile, the Castle, and other sights.
We also enjoyed the cleanliness of the room. It had what we needed, the furnishings were well-​kempt, and the beds were comfortable.
However, we were underwhelmed by the service. The husband and I arrived at the hotel after deciding to walk from the train station (not so wise when you’re pulling suitcases over cobblestone in the damp dark), to discover that there were stairs at the entrance. What? No one bothered to come down and help us as we struggled up the steps to the front desk area, and then there was yet another set of stairs leading to the elevator lobby. We asked but got no answer about a ramp or lift, and so wondered what other travelers experienced or even those who are disabled and cannot navigate steps. This seemed like a serious design flaw, and the lack of service discolored our stay. We also found the hotel food options too expensive, so opted for the neighboring cafes instead.

There are two Apex hotels in Grassmarket. This is the nicer of the two (the other one is fine though!). I was only here for a night, sleeping off jetlag, but the staff were great to my confused, sleep-​deprived self, and took the time to explain and draw out a map to tell me how to get around. The bed was awesome and the location is very central. I would spring for the breakfast though — there’s a café next door that’s a lot cheaper with quality food.

We primarily chose the Apex International for its location and it had a pool! Perfect walking distance to most of the attractions we had time for on our 2 day trip.
The room and bathroom were a decent size with a comfortable bed, however, looks like we were shunted into a room for disabled clients — bathroom had hand-​railings, sink lower than usual, which was no real issue, except the shower tended to flood the bathroom as it was on a slight slope meaning u had to wear shoes in the bathroom after each shower use. Unless you like wet socks every morning.
Part of the reason for staying here was the pool. Touristy stuff through the day, relax a bit in the pool in the early evening. However, the pool was filthy, floating bits of scum, hair, bits of plastic. I advised the front desk of this and they took down my contact details with the promise a manger would be notified. Well either the message was not passed on, general low standards, or they just don’t care as nothing happened and we had no contact back.
Upon checking out the reception girl brought up the wrong room and charged us for 3 nights parking instead of 2, without even checking first. Never heard of a buy 3, get 2 deal before. House-​keeping was a plus point. But for the money they charge, not impressed.

We are glad we decided to stay at Apex International. We stayed for two nights and since this was our first trip to Edinburgh, we didn’t really know what to expect. We picked Apex International because it was in Old Town (where we wanted to stay) and the price was very reasonable.
We arrived via an over night sleeper train from London, so we actually arrived at the hotel really early, like 8 AM early. We didn’t expect to get a room until after 3 PM, their check in time, and had just wanted to leave our luggage at the hotel so we can tour around town. But the receptionist desk clerks were super friendly and looked for a room for us. In fact, they took several extra minutes because they said some parts of the hotel is under renovation and they wanted to make sure we are not disturbed. So though we weren’t expecting to get a room that early, we certainly were very appreciative that we did. It really helped to get to relax in a room, refresh a little, before going back out to tour the city.
Our short stay at Apex International was a very pleasant one. They hotel clerk asked if we needed any directions or help with any attraction booking. Every time I asked them a question, ranging from where to get stamps to leaving our luggage after we checked out, I’ve had really pleasant and friendly staff members.
We did feel a bit hot in the room (and this was toward the end of November) so we left the window slightly opened and cooled the room a bit because we couldn’t find the control to turn the heater off. It’s probably more of a personal preference because we usually like our room very cold. Since we only were staying there for two nights, we didn’t bother with getting maintenance to come. Other than that, our room was very spacious and the bed comfortable and we’d definitely consider staying here again if we are to travel to Edinburgh in the future.

After reading many reviews of this hotel, I was disappointed by the service of the staff and the accommodations. It reminded me of the UK version of a Marriott, so nothing spectacular.
The first room we checked into was on the top floor and had a nice view east of the city. However, the wind was howling and howling as soon as we set foot in the door and something in the roof/​ceiling was banging. I hate to do it but I knew I would never sleep through that so we requested to move to a lower floor. The manager came up in about 10 – 15 minutes and brought us to our room on the 2^nd floor which was unfortunately much smaller. This was not ideal as we were on our honeymoon and would have liked a good size room; however, we did complain about the first so it was okay.
The next morning we woke up sweating as the heat had been left on (I guess by housekeeping) and it was very hot. My husband went to turn the heat down, looked down at the knob and it was completely broken off of the heater. We were on our way out so we stopped at the front desk and told them so that they could maintenance while we were out. When we returned, no luck, still broken. We called the front desk and requested maintenance again, again no luck. This continued for the next 2 days, again sweaty and hot all night long. Yuck!
Maintenance finally showed up the night before we were to leave and changed the valve/​knob in about 10 minutes. But all that time we had waited really left a bad memory for us. If the maintenance department was understaffed, I wish they would have moved us to a different room, or to their other location a few doors down.
To note:
* do not mix up with the Apex City Hotel, which is a few doors down
* careful getting out of the shower, its slippery and nothing to hold onto
* great, central location to get to Old Town and touristy activities

Not bad. Cheap and cheerful. Clean. Well placed.

I travel to Edinburgh atl east once a year for pleasure, i have stayed in New Town during my last visits, this time i had to find a room for 3 persons, Apex International offer family room for a reasonable price.
We arrived very late on a Monday, the reception desk was very friendly and professional, we got our at first floor (didn’t like it because i emailed a couple of days earlier and asked for a room on the highest floor).
The room had a small window towards the inner garden, the window wasn’t able to open, the room had at least 25 degrees and soggy, it was impossible to sleep there. I went to the reception and complained about the room, –Sorry but we are out of rooms, i explained that is was impossible to sleep there cause of bad air and heat. I asked for another room in there other hotels. In one minute the fixed us a room at Apex Waterloo place (i have stayed there before and its great hotel) for a night, and then move back to another room at International. The reception order taxi and payed the round trip for us and also gave us a breakfast for free. THIS IS AN EXCELLENT TREATMENT OF CUSTOMER, very professionally
This kind of treatment make me want to stay at APEX again of course.
The hotel is headed in Grass market, perfect location in Edinburgh, the room was very nice and good space.
In this hotel you get alot of value for the money.
Breakfast is not that god, i can recommend to have nice breakfast 5 minutes of walk at Peters Yard instead
Apex have 4 hotels in Edinburgh and i have stayed in two of them i think International and city are good, hut Waterloo place is the most trendy/​updated. European is to simple for me.

I recently visited the Apex International hotel as part of a wedding and I wasn’t impressed. The décor of the hotel is fine but it’s ridiculously hot. It seriously felt like I was in the Indonesia or the Caribbean, it was that hot.
I spoke to one of the hotel porters and they said it was like that all the time, not good!
Another thing was the main wedding organiser was extremely rude. I personally heard the organiser tell the wedding photographer’s assistant Get the photographer (she used his name but it’s not appropriate to write that here). No please or anything like that.
Potentially the photographer and/​or his assistant could have been future guests at the hotel but based on this treatment I doubt it.
Wedding was quite nice though, the room where the couple got married has absolutely fantastic views of Grassmarket and Edinburgh Castle.

Amazing location with view of the castle from 5^th floor restaurant.

Selecting a hotel on line in a city you’ve never visited before is always a bit dicey. Frustrated by the hundreds of choices in Edinburgh, I finally went with Apex International for the location on the Grassmarket.
When we walked up to the hotel I was relieved to find a modern hotel in an excellent location. The room was large enough and comfortable, though jammed with large furniture. The window overlooked the Grassmarket with Edinburgh Castle up above it. The smallish bathroom was modern and the hot water plentiful.
My son who mainly travels the hostel route thought the Apex was luxurious and would give the Apex four stars. I thought it was a very comfortable hotel in an excellent location for seeing the sights of Edinburra.
This is a busy hotel with conferences taking place and busloads of people on tour checking in and out at the same time. Among the amenities (we never used) are an in-​door pool, a nice looking bar, and a restaurant.
Small complaints: no desk lamp, bad light over the sink for shaving, and the two computers in the 2^nd floor lobby are excruciatingly slow.
Price. I booked on line 6 weeks in advance and paid approximately $ 120/​night — about what I’ve paid for comparable hotels in downtown Philadelphia, Ottawa, and Denver and less than SF, Chicago and New York. North American tourists, remember that hotel prices in the UK, unlike at home, include all the taxes.

The room was comfortable, the staff were attentive and helpful. The seal around the bath was mouldy which was off putting, and the extractor fan in the bathroom was disgusting. There was a nice big flatscreen TV in the room. The bed was large and comfortable.
I would stay here again. I just hope the mould has evolved into something with legs and crawled away.

Sunday lunch was excellent. Good price, good atmosphere and good food.
Service was very iffy, but the food and wine left that far behind.
Pricing was very reasonable.
The bar attracts a wide range of families, posh hen/​stag parties and Irish hen/​stag parties with children with posh, rough and everything in between. Sadly Sky Sports plays constantly in the background, probably to compete with pubs across the road in the Grassmarket. Switch it off!
We will have Sunday lunch there next time we are in Edinburgh.
(Stayed as hotel guest before but not reviewed as such. Any such review would be much different)

The Apex looks great from the outside — big, modern and trendy. The inside is similar too… aside from the big comments. I found the rooms quite small, and was disappointed in the bathroom.
The rooms are nice enough — I was reminded that we wern’t in the hotel for the rooms, we were there to visit the city so I suppose it’s all that we needed. It’s in a great location and every now and then they have really cheap deals. If it’s your first time in Edinburgh then this would be the ideal hotel to stay in, for all the tourist-​y things, but there are nicer hotels in the city for your second visit.

Cet hotel n’a rien de typique, mais il propose tout le confort possible: emplacement sur grass market et à 500m du château d’Edimbourg, piscine, salle de sport, bar, wii, 2 postes internet, wifi dans toute les chambres, 2 bouteilles d’eau et plateau de courtoisie tout les jours.
Le prix était de 90EUR par nuit entre 2 matchs des 6 nations, mais le tarif doit augmenter très vite lors du festival ou des jours de matchs de l’écosse.
A noté que seul l’anglais était parlé à l’acceuil

Friendly service, nice rooms (not big) and modern design. Good bar and across from a pedestrian walk filled wih pubs & restaurants. View of the Edinburgh Castle from the front and a short walk to the Royal Mile. Perfect for those staying in Edinburgh for a long weekend and who plan on partaking in a few (many) pints and want an easy walk from the pubs to their room.