Cowgate Tourist Hostel

If you have taken the time to read my previous reviews of backpacking hostels in Edinburgh you will see I’m fairly getting through them and at some point in the future I will be able to say I stayed in them all.
Recently I had the pleasure of staying at the Cowgate Tourist Hostel which is just a short distance along from Budget Backpackers, another hostel I reviewed recently. At the Cowgate I was met by very friendly and accommodating staff who processed my booking quickly and efficiently.
From there I had to exit the main reception area and walk a few doors further along the street because this hostel is not accessed internally. Instead the dorms are in individual self contained apartments accessed by a common stairwell and each flat has its own shower room and kitchen. My dorm had only four beds which is good because the fewer beds there are the easier it is to get a decent night’s kip. Larger dorms will have more people coming and going, more snorers and so on, so these small dorms are quite good from a privacy perspective. To this extent the Cowgate hostel is different from other hostels I’ve stayed at in Edinburgh or anywhere else.
So far so good! Now for the negative aspects none of which should stop you from staying here, at least it wouldn’t deter me, but for the hostel management reading this it would be worth noting that suitable upgrades based upon my recommendations will be deserving of further review and more stars. Although 3 out of 5 isn’t bad at all!
Security is important to the modern backpacker simply because these days we are carrying more expensive electronic goods, computers, i-​phones, cameras and so on. So most backpackers like to have a locker to put their stuff while they leave the dorm to cook food or grab a shower, to prevent the opportunist thief from grabbing their stuff and out the door. The lack of personal lockers in the dorms is likely to be a problem for many guests staying at the Cowgate which is further exacerbated by the fact there is no CCTV presence anywhere inside the hostel.
So let’s say someone does grab your stuff and makes off with the loot, with the presence of CCTV the culprit would possible be caught on camera and easily identified as they exited the building. With no CCTV there isn’t even the possibility of alleging who took your stuff should you make a police complaint. Other reasons for having CCTV, especially with mixed sex dorms, is protection from assault or allegations of assault made against you. Let’s just say without CCTV and oversight by the central reception area or security room then anything could happen undetected by anyone until well after the event took place.
So marks off for security. The showers were fine, everything clean and the water was hot and so to the kitchen. From my observations in hostel kitchens frying pans are very popular cooking utensils especially for Spanish and Italian visitors. The kitchen didn’t have a frying pan. It didn’t have any cooking utensils apart from cutlery. It only had one large pot, no smaller or medium sized pots and so I had to fry using the base of large soup pot and using a fork to turn the food over. And the reason for this? The lack of CCTV means that some guests are taking the stuff away with them because there is no oversight. You could walk out with the microwave if you wanted and because the flats are accessed from the street the reception area cannot monitor the comings and goings of guests there,
After reading this you may wonder why I even gave it 3 stars. Well, backpacking hostels are in many respects about making do and it is very good accommodation for the price but the management should take heed of my recommendations, namely improvements in security, adequate provision of cooking utensils and I would happily give four stars. So not bad but definite room for improvement here.