Edinburgh Hotel with Laundry

Not sure about hotels but if you are willing you could most likely get a private room in a hostel. I have not stayed at this one but the Edinburgh Central Youth Hostel has both private rooms and a laundry room. There are no age restrictions and I have encountered many people of different ages in most hostels.

Fraser Suites on St Giles St has rooms with 2 twin beds and a small laundry room for guest use. We’ve stayed there many times and did laundry each time.

Hi, Allie,

Some hotels (not all) would be willing to do your laundry for you, possibly at no charge. Obviously they can't do that in the morning, as that's when they are washing the sheets, pillowslips, towels, and duvet covers from the previous night's guests. It's not going to be something that they advertise, especially on Booking.com. You'd probably have to contact the hotels individually.

It may not be part of the hotel's policy, but sometimes you can get a sympathetic night manager to do the wash for you. I've had that happen on a couple of occasions, and the night manager refused to take any money. We did bring her a nice box of chocolates, though.

Try the Premier Inns. They're the ones who have been amenable to our situation. You may be able to find a self service laundrette wherever you are after Edinburgh. Or if that fails, the laundrette could do a service wash for you, which means that you leave your laundry, they wash and dry it for you, and then you pick it up later. From experience, most Scottish laundrettes wash hot and dry hot, so don't let them wash anything that will shrink.

As you'll have a car, you could even do your wash at a hostel, as Wendy suggested, and you don't have to be a guest there. We've done that in the past. Just make sure that you give yourselves enough time to finish your wash before the hostel closes for the morning.

Self service laundrettes are increasingly harder to find in Scotland. There's a good one in Camelon, which is next to Falkirk. There's still one in Portree, below the hostel, and Inverness has at least one that I know of. Oban and Tobermory have service wash laundrettes; however, you may have to leave your laundry overnight in Tobermory if you don't get it in early in the day. If you're staying in B&Bs during the rest of your Scottish holiday, you may be able to gain sympathy from your host(s).

Good luck, and happy touring!

Mike (Auchterless)

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. I'm not opposed to a hostel if we can get a private room. But my friend and I are both past the age where we're willing to sleep in a large dorm just to save money. We're planning to look for B&Bs for the rest of our trip so asking there is a good idea also. I appreciate everyone helping me think outside the box on this one.

Personally, I'm used to packing light and making due, but this will be my friend's first foray into trying to travel with just one suitcase, so I thought I might be able to ease her mind if I could assure her that we could do a "real" load of laundry at least once.

Most hotels will charge for laundry and may not be able to get it back to you on time. Why not stay in an apartment with a washing machine?

Hi again, Allie,

Hostels have come a long way since we started visiting Scotland in the 1970s. Most now have at least one private room, and some of them are en-suite. Almost all of the private rooms are twin bedded, so that would be ideal for you and your traveling companion.

My wife and I are well in to our 60s, and we've had no problem with hostels. We quite enjoy them, as a matter of fact. We've stayed in hostels on Skye (Skyewalker), Rum (Rum Bunkhouse), and Eigg (Glebe Barn). All very comfortable, and all highly recommended. But, as you said, no dormitories for us. At our age(s), we enjoy our privacy! :)

Best wishes,

Mike (Auchterless)

Allie:

I suggest that you look at the rooms that are available at Pollock Halls which is part of the University of Edinburgh. The halls have single and double occupancy rooms, and has a self-serve laundry. While the rooms are available during the summer months there are some rooms that are available year round.

The downside of Pollock Halls is that it is not in the center of the city. You can walk from there to city center in less than 30 minutes but, better yet, there is regularly scheduled frequent bus service from the campus to city center - maybe a five minute ride.

https://www.edinburghfirst.co.uk/accommodation/pollock-halls/

Be cautious about University rooms. My husband and I, in an outbreak of frugality, stayed in rooms at the U. of Glasgow on one trip. Give me a cheap hotel any time. Very, very basic and I had a long trek down a lonely, ill lit corridor to the women’s washrooms.

Norma's comment reinforces the need for any accommodation - not just residence halls - to be checked out at yelp, travel advisor, even the site of the rental agency to see if there are any quirks with the room. I favor a lot of space which one gets with a university residence hall room as contrasted to say a budget hotel room in London,Paris or other popular city. I never have had a bad internet connection in a dorm room which is not the case with hotels. I have stayed at residence halls at the University of Edinburgh, University of Westminster (2 times), and University College London and have found all of them to be excellent if one is seeking a budget accommodation. Two of the places had large kitchens for student & visitor use, and Pollack Hall included a hearty breakfast as part of the daily fee (all you can eat Scottish breakfast and non-fried healthy options and haggis).

You could try inquiring with B&Bs. I’ve had some luck when traveling in Europe with them being amenable to doing a full load of clothes before for a reasonable price. Not all will accommodate, but some do.

As a B&B owner myself (not Edinburgh based!), I can confirm that many of us would be willing to do laundry for a small fee (personally I charge £7.50 per load and for that I will iron the stuff too). However, it is worth letting your landlady know which items can't be put in the dryer, or need a low temperature wash. I know from travelling in the States that many Americans wash their clothes in cold water, but that is pretty uncommon here. The coolest wash on my machine is 30 degrees centigrade and I generally wash clothes on 40 degrees centigrade and sheets and towels on 60 degrees centigrade (or hotter if there are marks). This has elicited a horrified reaction from some American guests when they've asked me to do a load of washing.

Oh and a note about booking.com, there is an option for owners to show washing machines and dryers. But I have not ticked that as I feel that it implies that I am allowing guests to use my washing machine and dryer themselves. Whereas I am in fact doing the laundry for them. The option for owners also asks the owner to state the hours in which the laundry facilities are available. Again, I feel this is misleading, as I would prefer to arrange this with each guest. For example if a guest arrived at 10pm, was planning to check out at 8am and asked me if I could do a load of laundry for them I would probably say no, where as if they arrived at 4pm, I would probably say yes. That might explain why you are not finding many places with laundry as an option on booking.com. It doesn't mean they won't do it and I'd suggest a phone call to explain your situation and ask.

If you do a google search and use the word "laundrette" (what they call self service laundries in the UK) you will find some.

(See below)

So this prompted me to do the google search that Frank proposed and interestingly they all close by 7 PM or at least all the ones that I checked. (Boy would this have been a problem for me when I was renting a room for a while and traveling for work. I might have had to take off work to do laundry! It really shows the difference in cultures!) There were some that opened at 7 AM so you could try that route. All in all, I think your first plan of finding a place with self-service laundry is your best bet with your schedule. Or you could decide to pick up your car later in the AM and do early morning wash.

As I mentioned earlier, Fraser Suites has twin rooms (which the OP Allie requested), and a self service laundry room on site for guests to use. My husband and I were just there 2 weeks ago and did a couple loads before heading to London.

When I said earlier if you googled laundrette you'll find some, I should have said if you google Edinburgh Hotels Laundrette you'll find some hotels with self service laundries.

I'm booked at the Adagio Aparthotel (Accor chain) for May 2019. They advertise a self-serve laundry inside the hotel and the rooms have a kitchenette. That's handy for a quick pastry (bought the previous evening) and fast departure in the morning.

It's located on the Royal Mile, an easy walk to the train station, the area where tour buses begin and end, and many cafes, bakeries, etc. I booked several months ago and converted the rate to USD, my rate is $130/night for a single in mid-May. I chose the hotel for its location, good rate, and the laundry facilities. If you join the Accor rewards program (no cost) you get a 5-10% discount on rates.

You could also check for airbnb accommodation and filter by washer and dryer.