We just came back home from a lovely overnight staycation at The House of Gods Hotel here in Edinburgh.
It’s so lovely to see things starting to open up again here in the UK and it seemed the perfect time to book Mr C’s delayed Christmas gift!
The Room
I booked the smallest of the rooms at The House of Gods called The Cabin. It is inspired by The Orient Express and even though there’s not a lot of room to move around it was a great size for the experience we were looking for. The room has many lovely details in the indulgent Art Deco style of the hotel. Complete with a four poster bed (which was SO comfy) with a bathroom with a shower. There’s even a hidden tv in the mirror with Netflix and behind another mirror you’ll find a Nespresso machine.
One thing that is good to be aware of is that there’s no real windows in the rooms in The House of Gods Hotel, but instead there’s a fake window with a light screen. Most of the hotel is dimly lit and in the rooms as well, which adds to the feeling of it. It almost makes you think of a casino and can kind of mess with your brain as the only way of knowing what time of day it is, is to trust a watch. The only time I was missing the daylight was in the morning when it would’ve been lovely to open the blinds to let the light it.
All the communication with the staff is handled through WhatsApp. And there’s also this handy little thing with the buttons, that you can see in the photo below. In our booking we had unlimited prosecco, so we only had to press the button for it to be delivered to the room. Judging by the state of it I think there’s quite a lot of people that have used it considering you can barely see the text anymore…
Locked in like I’m Famous
Since this was a gift and we also wanted to enjoy the room and the experience of it, I also booked the VIP Package “Locked in like I’m Famous”. It is usually called Treat me like I’m Famous but was currently slightly adjusted to accommodate the restrictions. It included lots of extras like a chocolate platter, cocktails, pizza and a luxury breakfast hamper the next day.
– Gold petals, Balloons and Chocolate Platter on arrival in the room
– HOG System Musical Cocktail Journey (4x cocktails)
– Milk & Cookies: Midnight Feast
– Unlimited Prosecco
– Upgraded Breakfast Hamper with Mimosas
– Civerinos Pizza
The Food
It was so convenient to have the pizza included in the package so that we could just stay in the room, enjoy ourselves and have a large serving of pizza. We got a half’n’half where Mr C got pepperoni on his half and I got a Caprese Bomb on mine. If you worry about not getting full from half a pizza – keep in mind that these are 22″ pizzas!
We woke up around 8 which was the perfect time to get up, have a shower and then enjoy the breakfast and some extra time in bed before it was time to check out. In the breakfast hamper we got bagels, waffles and coconut + muesli along with tea & coffee. I am always sceptical towards waffles. Unless they’re the Scandinavian style which are crispier and thinner than American or Belgian, but these waffles were so nice! The only thing I would’ve changed is to have a savoury option with the bagel – some cheese or salmon perhaps. The spreads available were butter, jam and/or Nutella. And along with breakfast we also got mimosas, but also some orange juice on its own in a glass bottle.
Good to know
Check in is from 15.00 and check out at 11.00. There’s also the option of paying extra for a late check-out.
The House of Gods Hotel is located in Cowgate, a very central location in the Old Town in Edinburgh. With walking distance to most things like the castle, airport buses and the shopping streets.
The lockdown VIP Package was approximately £100 and the room on it’s own was about £150.
Pros & Cons
We definitely had a great stay at The House of Gods Hotel and I would happily recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a great hotel experience, a staycation or just something a bit different. This section of the text is primarily to highlight the things that were outstanding for our experience – and the things that could’ve been improved. Or perhaps just little hiccups that made the experience less smooth.
Pros
On the Pros list I’d definitely include how comfortable the beds are. Considering we spent most of our time in bed, either eating pizza, watching the new Netflix show Shadow & Bone or just enjoying cocktails it was so lovely to be able to do so from such a comfortable bed. I slept really well as well, with the only minor thing that it was a tad too hot in the room, which I’m mentioning below as well.
The most outstanding thing about our stay at The House of Gods is simply that’s it was such a great experience. It is different and interesting, instead of just being a bed where you sleep for the night. You actually want to spend time in the room and the VIP package makes it all even better. If I’m able to go back one day I’ll probably opt for one of the bigger room. Perhaps the one with the freestanding bath!
Cons
Like I already mentioned, the room was a bit too hot when it was time to sleep. It seems the fans turned off sometimes around 20.00-21.00. That meant that the room quite quickly went from being a comfortable cool, where we could snuggle down underneath the comfortable covers, to being almost too hot to be able to sleep. We both had to take cold showers to cool down just before bedtime and the thermostat seemed to not respond when we pressed the buttons to try and make the room colder. Not sure why this happened, perhaps it is so the fans aren’t too noisy but I would’ve personally preferred a slightly audible fan over a room that’s too hot.
The second thing for us was that we would’ve wished to be able to enjoy the Musical Cocktail Journey earlier. It was available between 22.00-01.00 and we ordered the first one at 22.15 and by 23.30 we had yet to receive the second one. So instead we asked if it was possible to receive the remaining three cocktails all together to enjoy at our own pace. We were just getting so tired, perhaps it’s the lockdown routines that got us used to being in bed by 22.00 every night…
They were happy to accommodate and shortly thereafter we got all three delivered. Wish we had known to ask for it slightly earlier as it would’ve been more enjoyable to sip slowly at our own convenience instead of feeling like we had to stay awake just to wait for the cocktails to be delivered more than 40 minutes after ordering. I totally understand that it might just be a hiccup or that it take a wee time to get back to business after just reopening wbut we were very happy that it was possible to find a solution as we really wanted to try all the cocktails that were offered as we’d heard so many good things about them. I’d also just note that when we got to bed we could still hear the cocktails being delivered to other rooms that had the same package which was quite noisy as they’re delivered along with music. The rooms themselves were so quiet but you could hear pretty much everything that was going on in the hallway.
The only other thing to note was that we seemed to miss the wi-fi code when we checked in so when we got to the room and tried to contact the staff through WhatsApp we couldn’t as there’s no reception in the rooms. After heading back down to reception we sorted it out however and then realised the chocolate platter was missing from the room as well. No big thing and it is an easy mistake, which was fixed immediately when we asked about it, but just a minor hiccup to the check in.
If there’s any questions, please just let me know in the comments!
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