edinburgh hotels

Looking for a cheap edinburgh hotel? Whether you want a B&B or 5 star hotel, we will point you to the widest choice of edinburgh hotels and tell you where to book them at the lowest price.

There are 5 websites that, between them, offer the cheapest prices on edinburgh hotels. You don't have to spend hours clicking around hundreds of websites in order to get the best price on your edinburgh hotel. Nor is your best bet limiting your choice to one or two big brand names.

Most of the 'edinburgh hotels' websites you will see when you do an internet search are affiliates of one of these websites (they offer a limited range from just one of these five edinburgh hotels websites). Here we tell you about all 5 websites, plus a couple of other websites with a limited range of edinburgh hotels, but great prices.

Each website offers an excellent choice and rock bottom prices. We make it easy for you to compare their prices plus, where they have them, we link you directly to their edinburgh hotels pages.

Where to book edinburgh hotels at the lowest price

Now the interesting bit. The following websites will give you the widest choice of edinburgh hotels at the lowest prices. We link you directly to their edinburgh pages and tell you how to get the best from them:

Superbreak - this link is to superbreak's edinburgh hotels page. It gives you a list of up to 75 hotels in and around edinburgh.

Room rates, facilities, grades, detailed descriptions and even photos are available for most hotels. But note that Superbreak quote prices on a per person basis not per room.

You can narrow your search by clicking on the 4 options:
• clicking on 'stars' - lists the edinburgh hotels from the highest hotel star (grade) rating to the lowest. To start at the 2 star (budget) hotels, page down to the bottom of the first page and click on the last page.
• clicking on 'hotel name' - makes the list change to an alphabetical listing of the edinburgh hotels
• clicking on price 'lowest first' or 'highest first' changes the order based on the rate per person (not per room)

Active hotels - with a very fast search, this is an excellent website for budget hotels and to get a baseline on the rate you should expect to pay. They offer the widest choice of edinburgh hotels too - up to 100 hotels in and around edinburgh, from B&Bs to 5 star luxury with rates from £25 a room or less to £250 or more.

Unfortunately, there is no way to sort the hotels, but you can click for a description and picture of any of the hotels, plus detailed hotel information. You can book and get instant online confirmation too. The website covers the big chains, independent hotels and B&Bs.

Worldres / placestostay.com - this website provides the edinburgh hotels pages of many well known brands, including lastminute.com and Opodo. The link takes you straight to their edinburgh hotels page - with a choice of up to 50 edinburgh hotels, anything a bed in a dormitory from £10 a night to apartments or suites in 5 star luxury hotels.

You can sort the list by hotel star rating, A-Z (or Z-A) and 'packages' (which could be renamed 'specials' - hotels with 4 nights for the price of 3 or specials on dinner bed and breakfast are listed first).

With prices up to 70% off published rates, this website was voted WorldRes "best of the web" for hotel reservations for the last two years by Forbes magazine.

Hotels.com / travelnow.com - is one of the worlds biggest hotels websites. This link is direct to their 'edinburgh hotels' search start page.

Once you have entered your dates, you will be presented with a list of their best edinburgh hotel deals, followed by all of the edinburgh hotels they offer. You can sort the hotels by 'best value' (special offers at the top), 'quality' (or star rating), 'price' or as an 'A-Z' list, or you can search for hotels near a specific edinburgh landmark (there is a drop down list of these).

Hotels.com use their bulk buying muscle to offer 'special internet rates', offering guaranteed rooms and a number of hotels with 'best buy' prices that usually can't be beaten.

Allrez.com - this link takes you to the allrez edinburgh hotels page. You will be presented with a page to enter your dates, with 'refine search' section at the bottom of the page.

Unfortunately, the refine search doesn't work very well. The quickest way to get an idea of the edinburgh hotels on offer for your dates is to enter them in the drop down boxes at the top and hit 'search'. Or, if you know the hotels you want, search by hotel name to check the price at Allrez.

Allrez offer a broad range of edinburgh hotels and (if you click on 'more information') an honest assessment of the hotel and its location.

(The next two websites are not as strong as those above but, if you have time, are always worth a look. They provide some additional information and are regular places for bargains)

Venere - a well laid out website offering around 30 edinburgh hotels ranging from 1 star all the way up to 5 star. In addition to great prices, they also feature customer reviews of many of the hotels they list. Also, when you click on the hotel name to get more information, you're usually presented with the hotels own web pages, which offer much more detail than is usually supplied. So you get the best of both worlds from this website - information from the hotel and a view from people who've stayed there.

Hotel Connect - a good website with a limited range of edinburgh hotels but great prices on the few they do offer. Browse their special offers and, once you've searched, click for a description and picture of the hotel and other essential information.

How to get the best price on edinburgh hotels

1. As with most things on the web, our first piece of advice is to shop around for your edinburgh hotel. Check the prices at all of the websites listed above. It's not unusual for each of them to offer the same hotel on the same day at very different prices.
2. Unlike flights, as long as there is no conference or major event in Edinburgh (and you can check that at whatsonwhen), you will usually get the best deal by leaving booking late. Booking between two and seven days in advance usually yields the cheapest rates on edinburgh hotel rooms. But don't wait until the day as prices go back up.
3. When comparing prices, the most important thing is to make sure that you are comparing ‘like with like’. Not just the same hotel (and there are 5 Hilton hotels serving Edinburgh, for example), make sure the ‘package’ is the same. Price per person or per room, service charges added on late in the booking process and breakfast (included or not) are the usual variants.
4. Sometimes adding a weekend night will lower the rate for all of the other nights of your stay (you are classed as a 'leisure' traveller).
5. Compare prices, but compare locations too. It's usually worth paying a little extra to be nearer the centre of town, or your preferred attraction.
6. Don't just rely on 'star' ratings. Look at the facilities the hotel has and rank hotels based on the facilities importance to you.
7. If you want a cheap hotel at the weekend, consider hotels in or near the business district / the airport (to the west of Edinburgh). The business people who use these hotels only want rooms during the week. These hotels are usually of a 'superior' standard but, in order to attract weekend custom, they offer excellent weekend deals.