Good – fantastic value for £20 a night bed and breakfast for ensuite single room midweek in February 2008. Good location, just of London road, 15 minutes walk from Princes Street.

Bad – room quite basic beginning to show some minor signs of wear and tear.

Score – 10 out of 10 (at £20 a night)

I found the Cairn Hotel while searching on my favourite hotel price comparison site HotelsCombined for £22 for a single ensuite room without breakfast. I thought this was a pretty good price but I thought I’d also have a look at the hotels own website. Unusually the rooms were even cheaper there. A single room was £19, a double £29 including breakfast if you paid upfront and £20 for the single and £30 for the double, with the the option to cancel up to one day before arrival.

The hotel consists of a conversion of several adjacent terraced Georgian town houses. The receptionist was cheerful and welcoming, My room was a good size for a single room, basically furnished with an ensuite shower room. Although the room had a high ceiling and it was a cold night, the room was nice and cosy. My room was at the front of the hotel on the ground floor but I didn’t hear any external noise as it’s a few hundred metres from the main road.  Breakfast was adequate with a choice of cereal, yoghurt and tinned fruit, fruit juice and a cooked breakfast. If you have a car, you can park free overnight until 08.30 and it’s 70 pence an hour from 08.30 with a maximum stay of 4 hours.

I had a look at the availability of these low rates and could only find them midweek until the end of February, then the price increased to £37 a night. At that price my overall score would change as the price has almost doubled.

Click here to check out the price for the Cairn Hotel on the HotelsCombined price comparison site.

Click here for the lowest prices on Edinburgh hotels