Smart City Hostels

The bedroom was kept clean. The sheets and towels were clean but one of the WC of this 8 person room was not flushing properly. So that was 3 days of sharing 1 toilet with 7 other people.
Also, for some reason, my bunk bed didn’t have any electrical outlet which was extremely annoying. I basically had to hover around someone else’s bed just to plug in my phone. The check in lady’s solution was to plug my phone over night at the reception area. Some of my tours started at 6 50 am and I have to use the alarm clock on my phone. Basically, some else had to wake up to hear my alarm first since it’s right next to them.
The Internet was horrible too.

Muy buena atención al cliente!!! El lugar muy limpio y hermoso!!! El lugar de recreación grande y bello! Las habitaciones tranki y con baños privados! En el centro de la ciudad !! Buena relación precio calidad

The Smart City Hostel is about a 10 minute walk from Princess Street and the Downtown area.
The rooms are clean and so are the showers and bathrooms. They have have coin operated laundry which was very helpful.
The free wifi was a huge help.
I would defiantly stay here again.

We stayed here for 5 days/​4 nights as part of a college study abroad trip over the winter holiday break. We ended up in the semi-​private rooms of 4, but we all knew each other so it was fine.
The room facilities are quite nice, and I’m pretty sure all the equipment is from Ikea. Very modern cheap-​chic stylings. Each bed featured a wall socket and l.e.d. nightlight, as well as a pretty generous sized locker. It was large enough to fit carry-​on sized luggage into in the main shelf, and enough room for two pairs of shoes in the second shelf. Standard luggage sized locks fit in the lockers to lock them up. They also sell them at the front desk. Standard padlocks won’t fit. Our room featured a toilet and shower. Both were clean and neat with modern appointments.
The front desk also sells necessities like plug adapters for your electronics, earplugs, soap/​shampoo, laundry soap, bottled water, etc.
The free Wi-​Fi was pretty spotty and slow in the rooms — we tried in all our fellow students rooms too. I ran a speedtest utility and it showed that the speeds are only a bit faster than old-​school traditional telephone 56k dialup internet. 187k downlink /​94k uplink. Good enough for sending and receiving emails, Twitter, and iMessages but not enough for Facebook or any web browsing. They would just timeout because retrieving the data was so slow. You can buy faster wireless internet access for a charge, or use the internet café they have for a charge too. Downstairs in the bar, the free Wi-​Fi was much, much faster. I measured 2megs down and 1meg up. Almost 5 times faster than the room Wi-​Fi. If you’re a technology geek like me, do your internet stuff down in the bar.
The laundry facilities were quite handy. I ended up washing a load of clothes. They weren’t anything special, just 3 washers and 3 dryers and a row of folding chairs. But it was simple, neat, and clean. 2 pounds to wash and 1 pound to dry. A 2-​pack of soap (for two loads) cost 1 pound up at the front desk.
The bar in the ground level was great (see my other review) and so was the breakfast bar included with the price of our room.
Overall, a very great experience. I would definitely stay here over a traditional hotel any day!

Gute Lage, nettes Personal. Preise sind i.O. und die Zimmer auch. Das Essen in der Hausbar ist gut und preiswert. Kann dieses Hostel nur empfehlen.

Das Hostel hat die perfekte Lage für jeden, der schnell alle Sehenswürdigkeiten Edinburghs erreichen möchte und vor hat nicht allzu Lange in dem Hostel zu bleiben.
Die Gruppenzimmer sind in Ordnung: Mehrere Doppelstockbetten, jeweils ein eigener Schrank, ein Waschbecken außerhalb des Bads im Zimmer und ein Bad ohne Waschbecken. Mich hat gestört, dass die Dusche und die Toilette praktisch ohne Abschirmung sich in einem Meter Abstand gegenüber standen. Also hat man beim Duschen gleich das Klo noch mitgeduscht. Das nahm einem echt das Sauberkeitsgefühl.
Außerdem war das Waschbecken direkt im Gruppenzimmer, das killte noch den letzten Rest an Privatsphäre.
Doch der Preis für das Hostel war nicht teuer und schließlich hatte man sich ja für ein Gruppenzimmer entschieden und da ist ja klar, dass man da nicht alleine ist :-)
Die Betten waren sauber sowie die zur Verfügung gestellte Bettwäsche. Die Größe der Gruppenzimmer variieren von beengt bis ausreichend groß. Genügend Steckdosen gibt es auch sowie in der Lobby freien Internetzugang.
Das Frühstück war ein Reinfall. Keine frischen Waren, stattdessen Dosenfrüchte, chemisch hergestelltes Ei, abgepackte Süsswaren und verdreckte Tische. Einen Toast zu ergattern stellte sich auch als Herausforderung dar und es dann auch noch toasten zu können kostete auch Geduld. An zwei Tagen bekamen wir zu viert sogar nach 20 Minuten keinen Tisch.
Trotzdem würde ich das Hostel empfehlen, da es zentral gelegen ist und für den Preis angemessen ausgestattet ist. Nur wer seine Ruhe vor Schülern auf Klassenfahrt haben will, sollte sich eine andere Unterkunft suchen. Ansonsten ist noch zu sagen, dass das Personal sehr freundlich und hilfsbereit ist.

Came here at the recommendation of my friend Brian G. from San Diego. This place is essentially a modern university dormatory. It’s clean, well kept, pillows, towel, blankets, all the basics you would anticipate. (no toiletries. oops!)
There’s an outdoor patio and an indoor lounge and bar with tv, billiard/​pool table, plenty of chairs to just sit around. They serve food here too.
Free Wifi, internet is £1 for 30min. can’t print though, there’s an internet café next door that lets u print.
Good Location!
CON: If you’re a light sleeper then you’ll want to hear this: Similar to a college dorm, this place is noisy! People chatting it up in the outdoor terrace till really late, paper thin walls with kids opening and closing doors while talking and running, hard to sleep early or sleep late. (minus 1 star)

I thought this hostel was pretty good. It’s clean, has a modern look, and the rooms are very habitable. There’s free wifi, and plenty of space downstairs to hang out, shoot pool, or cook your own meal. There’s a bar too, though I didn’t get anything from there.
The location is pretty good, it’s right in the middle of old town in the heart of the city. Easy walk from Waverly.
In my room of 8 there were only 4 of us, and there are also 2 toilets and 2 showers. Nice. Oh, and towels are provided.
One gripe: there are lockers in the rooms for each bed, but they don’t take standard padlocks… the hole is too small. Come on now, seriously?

Smart City had a pretty good location in Old Town. You can walk easily up to the Castle, Royal Mile, Grassmarket/​Cowgate and Parliament. It’s also about a 10 minute walk from Waverly station.
The actual amenitiies were pretty good and got the job done but no ‘wow factor’ really. One of the guys in our room set some kind of record for snoring stamina which we could’ve done without. It actually caused four of us to wake up and crash in another room at 4:30 AM. Also out of our room the second night, the other people in there were all longer term residents who had been there for weeks and were looking for work in the city instead of other people traveling around Europe to hang out with.
Overall, the price was very reasonable though and the bathrooms, towels, beds were very clean so I’d stay there again.