find a cheap hotel in edinburgh

Cheap hotels in Edinburgh

Like any capital city in Europe, Edinburgh can be an expensive place to stay if you don't shop around for a cheap hotel room. Luckily though there is also a wealth of good cheap hotels and alternative accommodation options that shouldn't break the bank.

Search online for cheap Edinburgh Hotels

The first place many people start looking for a cheap hotel room in Edinburgh is the web. That's probably how you came to this page. It is possivle to get a deal with a site like www.expedia.com but that's usually only if you book a bunch of stuff together - flight, hotel, car etc. Still worth a look though because there are a lot of Edinburgh hotels listed in Expedia.

The two online sites that I would search first though for a cheap hotel in Edinburgh are:

• www.laterooms.co.uk - a site with lots of Edinburgh hotels listed and some genuinely good deals. Mostly you call the hotel directly to book with a reference from the laterooms site to get the advertised price
• www.lastminute.com - yes, I know it's a large corporate entitiy now, but lastminute still is a great place to source a cheap Edinburgh hotel room, especially if you are making your bookings erm... last minute.

Try to find a cheap hotel just outside Edinburgh city centre

This is a compact little city and if you really want a cheap hotel in Edinburgh, ignore all the listings you find for hotels on the Royal Mile or Princes Street. By booking an Edinburgh hotel room a few minutes bus ride from the city centre or a 20 minute walk, you have a large number of hotels to choose from, almost guaranteed to be cheaper than the Edinburgh City Centre hotels. Look for hotels in Areas like Newington, Bruntsfield, Stockbridge, Murrayfield, Leith.

The cheapest hotels in Edinburgh are Hostels

OK, so a hostel might sound like the place you go when you're homeless, but not so in Edinburgh. Because of the large number of visitors coming to Edinburgh on a shoestring searching for a cheap hotel, a number of excellent value, clean comfy hostels have opened up to fill the gap. In many you can have your own room and en-suite.

Try a guest house instead of a cheap hotel in Edinburgh

When searching for a cheap hotel in Edinburgh, don't limit yourself to checking the "hotels only" box in whatever search you are doing. Guest houses can often provide everything that a hotel provides but at a cheaper price. Many guest houses in Edinburgh are friendlier than hotels but still offer en-suite, parking, breakfast and dinner, licensed bar etc. You often couldn't tell the difference between a guest house and a hotel, especially with the larger ones.

Know when to go to Edinburgh to get a cheap hotel room

Although Edinburgh is a busy city all year round, there are certain times of year that you won't find a cheap hotel room in Edinburgh. The major times to avoid if you do want to find a cheap hotel are August and New Year. August is festival time in Edinburgh and the city swells with tens of thousands of extra visitors every single day, all eager to find the best hotel room at a decent price. Prices in Edinburgh hotels are at a premium in August.

At new year, avoid a few days either side of Hogmanay - Edinburgh's hotels are packed and you won't find a discount hotel room anywhere in the vicinity at this time.