Tartan Apartments - www.tartanapartments.co.uk

Be careful!

Four of us visited Edinburgh at the end of October 2011 and rented two Castle Apartments, flats 4 and 9 at 3 James Close, from Tartan Apartments for two nights. In fact they were not advertised on the website but we were told about them over the phone. We were quite happy with the price as we were desperate to make a booking and there were few other options, although we felt less happy when we saw the flats. However, they were well situated near the Castle and we liked the location, James Close, and the block's spiral staircase, although one light wasn't working which meant we had to be careful with the steps!

However, we found that in one flat a sofa bed was badly bent making it impossible to sleep on. In addition the heating did not work in two radiators. One of them was in the bedroom. The third radiator in the sitting room only came on after midnight on the first night so we thought it wasn't working when we went to bed. We also had a problem with the smoke/carbon monoxide alarm which went off when we burnt some food. Very difficult to turn off and one of us had to climb on a cupboard to reach one of them and had to disconnect all the alarms and take out the batteries to turn them off. In the other flat the fridge was leaking, the tv didn't work and the ceiling in the bathroom had a hole in it! However, the second flat was warm. It also had a spare portable radiator which we moved to the first flat and we moved the sofa bed mattress into the bedroom and used the portable radiator in that room.

When we arrived there was no-one to show us around the flats. Because we arrived after 8pm keys had to be collected from a box in a basement which was kind of creepy! One key set had a fob but the other didn't and the note didn't explain that there was a code instead of a fob so initially we thought we would not be able to get in and out of the block with that set of keys.

With the problems with the heating and alarms we rang the emergency number. The person who answered was unable to offer any assistance and said someone would visit to check the heating the next day. However, she did explain about the code for the key which was handy. Otherwise this was completely useless.

One of us visited the office in Queen Street, which is some way from the flats, to report the problems. We were told someone was going to visit that afternoon. When we reported the broken bed the staff person looked surprised. However, it is difficult to see how this could have been missed! We spotted it immediately. A member of staff had told us on the phone before we came to Edinburgh that the buses were not travelling between the High Street and the New Town and we would have to walk between the two. This information was incorrect, which was astonishing given the fact that they were servicing flats which required staff to move around these locations. But then perhaps they never visited these flats!

If someone did visit nothing changed with the heating. When we signed out we were told the person who had visited had found the heating was working! It made us wonder if anyone had bothered to go as two radiators were definitely not working. We can't say what the problem was but it didn't help that no-one had been there to show us the flat when we arrived. Either way no assistance was provided.

We said we thought we were entitled to a rebate on account of the unusable bed and the dodgy heating and were given an email address to contact when we got home. We were told the office was not responsible for the flats and the email would be passed on to the 'appropriate person'. The email was acknowledged by the office and supposedly passed on but then nothing further happened. Further emails did not receive any acknowledgement or action from anybody.

Even though the weather was still fairly clement this autumn the flat without heating was cold. We were fortunate to find the small portable radiator but this did not really warm the bedroom. In winter the flat would have been uninhabitable.

So while the location was a big plus the state of the apartments, particularly the flat with the bent bed and radiators which didn't work, was a big let down. Not having someone to show us round when we arrived and therefore to deal with problems was a serious failing compounded by the uselessness of the emergency service. The lack of attention and care by the office staff was disturbing and the failure to deal with the emails simply increased our cynicism about this company.