If you take a personal travel insurance policy it will protects you from potential losses if for some reason you have to cancel your booking or experience travel delays. If you can imagine you were the owner of a property that ESC managed and you were advised that a booking has been achieved for a given period 6 months in advance and then at the last minute the person cancels and no replacement booking is found. You would not be very pleased with ESC If a full refund was provided immediately you were left with no income from your investment property. ESC could have also advised several other interested parties that during the time from the original booking to the cancellation date that unfortunately the property was booked. It would therefore mean that ultimately ESC would just be operating a reservation system and not a booking one.
Therefore ESC has to protect it's clients but would always advise guests to protect themselves from potential losses by taking out a comprehensive travel insurance policy. It would also cover you for theft, medical emergencies, travel delays etc, etc A travel insurance policy should be mandatory in any travel plans that people make.
ESC does not own the properties on the website. They are owned by different people and ESC either fully manages them on their behalf or provides an enquiry and booking service were the owners manage the preparation and running of the property themselves.
The properties that ESC provides a FULL managed service for and which our promo codes will work on are:-
https://www.edinburgh-selfcatering.co.uk/fullymanaged
Promo codes will also work on 4, 16 & 18 Niddry St South which are not fully managed.
The security/key deposit (when required) is actually a slight variation of the procedure that hotels operate by swiping a guests credit card when they check in. However hotels have no limit on what they charge to the credit card if a guest causes unnecessary damage.
Unfortunately in the early years of operation we had a small number of people who did not show much respect to the properties they had booked, caused unnecessary damage or just left the properties in an unacceptable condition i.e. left food items lying about, dirty dishes etc.
It not expected that guests should clean properties but it not unreasonable to ask that items like crockery are put back where they were found and all garbage is bagged up and ready for cleaners to take away. The small security/deposit of either 200 pounds has pretty much stopped these issues by giving most guests a subtle mental nudge to perhaps put things away and tidy up. In the very exceptional cases of blatant disrespect to the properties and damage has occurred, 200 pounds rarely covers it. Please note that some properties have a different security amount, please check the specific terms & condtions of a property during the booking process.
Departure has to be at 10 am at the latest to allow time to prepare the property for the next guests and collect all the linen & towels to do the morning laundry run. A guaranteed late departure up to 20:00 can be requested (if available) for 50% of that daily rate. Please email if you want to utilise this facility and a price will be calculated.
Entry is from 14:00 onwards but if nobody has booked to depart on your day of arrival it will probably be very suitable us to give you entry as early as possible. Even if there is a booking departing that day it might still be possible to at least drop off luggage.
Some of the properties are operated differently from others and you might be provided with a pin number for a key box so early entry will be possible if nobody is booked to depart that day. You can check this if you have booked one of these properties by reviewing the availability calendar just before you leave to come to Edinburgh.
For most of the properties except for some exceptions*, a "meet and greet" policy is operated. You will be met at a property at a pre-arranged time to give access. Full instructions of this are sent out in the formal confirmation. Pease note that for arrivals after 19:00 there is a range fees for unsociable hours payable direct to the ESC representatives on arrival, 19:00 - 22:30 is 15 pounds, 22:31 - 00:00 is 30 pounds and 00:01 - 02:00 is 50 pounds, the latest access can be given is 02:00, otherwise it is given at 08:00 the next day. ESC accept no liability for any costs involved in alternative accommodation for this 6 hour period.
*The Niddry St properties all have self access. Keys are usually kept in a key box outside the property and instructions will be provided in the formal confirmation sent out.
2 nights for most of the year. The exceptions are the Edinburgh festival/frine in August, but this is relaxed once larger bookings have been achieved. New Year has a minimum booking off 4 nights.
Please email any special period requests for consideration and price.