Three years ago, I sat on the floor of Edinburgh Airport’s arrivals hall at 3:15 AM because I thought I was too smart to pay for a hotel. I’d found a ‘deal’ at a guesthouse in Corstorphine that looked great on paper, but the night bus never showed up, and the Uber surge pricing was more than the room itself. I ended up spending £70 on a taxi just to sit on a cold linoleum floor for two hours before my flight to Berlin. It was pathetic.
Since then, I’ve become obsessed with winning the hotel deals edinburgh airport game. I travel for work about twice a month, and I’ve stayed in every single one of those boxes around the terminal. Most people will tell you to just book the cheapest thing on Expedia and call it a day. Those people are wrong. They haven’t spent 11 weeks tracking price fluctuations on a spreadsheet like a total psychopath, which—embarrassingly—is exactly what I did last autumn.
The Moxy is a neon-lit prison and I hate it
I know I’m going to get heat for this. Everyone loves the Moxy. It’s got the pink lights, the ‘fun’ check-in at the bar, and the pillows that say things like ‘Play On.’ I hate it. I actually tell my friends to avoid it even when it’s the cheapest option on the list. It feels like staying in a mid-life crisis in building form. What I mean is—actually, let me put it differently. The rooms are so small you have to step outside just to change your mind, and they don’t even give you a proper desk. If you’re trying to get twenty minutes of work done before a flight, you’re stuck hunched over a tiny round table like a gargoyle.
I’ve stayed there three times. Every time, I tell myself the £85 rate is worth the ‘vibe.’ It never is. The last time, the music in the lobby was so loud at 11 PM that I could feel the bass in my teeth on the third floor. If you want to pay for the privilege of feeling like you’re at a shitty silent disco while trying to sleep before a 6 AM flight, be my guest. I’m done with it.
The £42 Tuesday Secret
Here is some actual data for you. I tracked the price of the DoubleTree and the Hampton by Hilton for three months. I checked the rates every Sunday evening and every Tuesday morning. On average, booking your Edinburgh airport stay on a Tuesday morning (around 10 AM) resulted in a price that was £14 lower than booking on a Sunday. That’s not a huge amount, but over four trips, I saved exactly £56. That’s enough for a decent dinner and a few drinks at the airport, or at least three very overpriced sandwiches at Pret.
I used to think that booking months in advance was the only way to get a deal. I was completely wrong. I’ve found that the ‘sweet spot’ for Edinburgh is actually 12 to 14 days out. If you book six months in advance, the hotels are just banking on your fear of missing out. They keep the prices high because they know corporate travelers have already locked in their budgets. If you wait until two weeks before, they start sweating about those empty rooms. I saw the DoubleTree drop from £145 to £92 in the space of four days just because it was a random Wednesday in November.
The part nobody talks about (the Tram tax)
Let’s talk about the ‘nearby’ hotels. You’ll see deals for hotels at Edinburgh Park or Gyle Centre that look amazing. £60 for a Novotel? Sounds like a steal. It isn’t. Once you factor in the tram fare, which is now a ridiculous £7.50 for a single ticket to the airport (even if you’re only going one stop from the Ingliston Park & Ride), the deal evaporates.
The Edinburgh Airport tram zone is a daylight robbery masquerading as public transport.
Unless you are staying at the Hampton, the Hilton, or the DoubleTree—the ones you can actually walk to—you are going to get stung. I once stayed at the Premier Inn at Newbridge to save £30. By the time I paid for the shuttle and the extra 20 minutes of sleep I lost, I felt like a loser. Anyway, I’m getting off track. The point is, if the hotel isn’t within walking distance of the terminal, add £15 to the price in your head before you click ‘book.’
Is the DoubleTree actually worth the extra cash?
I might be wrong about this, but I think the DoubleTree is the only ‘real’ hotel at the airport. The others are just places to store your body overnight. The rooms are actually quiet. Like, eerily quiet. I measured the decibel level on my phone during a storm last year and it stayed under 30dB while the wind was howling outside at 50mph. That’s the kind of thing you pay for.
Is it a ‘deal’? Usually not. It’s almost always the most expensive. But if you find it for under £110, grab it and don’t look back. It’s the only place where I don’t wake up feeling like I’ve been dragged through a hedge.
One weird thing though—the walk from the DoubleTree to the terminal is covered, but only like 80% of the way. There’s this one gap where the rain just pours down on you right before you get to security. It’s like the architects wanted to remind you that you’re still in Scotland before you leave. Cruel.
The verdict
Look, I don’t have a ‘comprehensive guide’ for you. I just have my own scars. If you want my honest advice: skip the Moxy, ignore the ‘deals’ in the city center if you have an early flight, and book your room on a Tuesday morning exactly two weeks before you fly.
I still wonder why I care this much about saving twenty quid on a room I’m only in for six hours. Maybe it’s just a way to feel like I have some control over the chaos of travel. Or maybe I’m just cheap. I honestly don’t know the answer.
Just buy the Hampton. It’s fine.