UK Trip #4: I Booked My UK Hotels a Year Ahead. Edinburgh Cost Double, and I Booked It Non-Refundable

Riding the momentum from booking my flights, next up were the hotels.

I could have waited until the itinerary was more settled. But I decided to pick just the main cities first and lock in hotels there.

Suitman is the type who, once an idea hits, can’t sit still. So I thought, “Let’s just book the hotels too!”

In the end, I booked four places a year ahead.

And two of the four were “non-refundable” (；´Д｀A

In this post, I’ll cover how I searched, what kind of places I chose, and the little trap I fell into.

What you’ll learn in this post
・Why hotels in Edinburgh cost almost twice as much in August
・Where and how I searched for hotels (Agoda + a points site)
・The price, room, breakfast and cancellation terms of the four places I booked a year ahead
・What happened after I booked non-refundable rooms

How did I search for hotels?

I go on a lot of business trips, and in Japan I usually check Toyoko Inn’s official site (a Japanese business hotel chain) or, lately, Google Maps, and book the cheapest option.

If you enter your dates in Google Maps’ hotel search, prices appear right on the map, along with a long list of sites you can book through. Some sites even offer special discounts when you come from Google, so checking regularly gives you a sense of the going rate. Sometimes you think, “Wait, wasn’t this hotel cheaper on that other site?”

But personal trips are different. I use sites with good points rewards.

In particular, when I book Agoda through Moppy (a Japanese points site), I’ve usually gotten about 4–6% back in points, so I think that’s the best deal for me. The rate changes depending on the time, though.

So I thought, why not use Agoda for hotels abroad too?

“It’s a year away, and I can cancel any time, so let’s just book something for now.”

…This careless thinking comes back later, lol.

Is Agoda okay?

I often hear stories about Agoda like “I was double-booked” or “When I got there, my booking didn’t exist.”

But I figured you can avoid that by confirming directly with the hotel ahead of time. In fact, Suitman sent the hotels a confirmation email in English.

And these are major cities in the UK. I figured there wouldn’t be any terrible places. Let’s hope this careless thinking doesn’t lead to a tragic ending later…

When choosing, I looked at Agoda’s reviews and picked places without too low a rating. And location, I guess. Busy areas might be noisy, but they’re convenient.

August in Edinburgh: the prices scared me

The first city I searched was Edinburgh, the northernmost stop.

I looked at the prices three times.

Even cheap places were about ¥24,000–25,000 per person per night. And that was for a capsule-style pod, with shared showers and toilets (　ﾟдﾟ)

I wanted two nights, so over ¥50,000.

“I guess Edinburgh is a popular city?” I checked the months around when I’m writing this, and in October, November and December you can stay for less than half that.

At first, I casually thought, “It’s expensive in August because European students are on vacation and people come from all over the world.” My Cambly teachers (online English tutors) had also told me that the UK gets a lot of tourists in summer.

But when I looked into it more…

The reason was “the Fringe”

In August, Edinburgh hosts the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, one of the largest performing arts festivals in the world. And 2027 is its 80th anniversary.

What festival is that… I’ve never heard of it…

And my stay in Edinburgh overlapped with exactly that period ((((；ﾟДﾟ)))))))

The Fringe’s official website is full of photos of huge crowds. In 2026, it seems 4,232 shows from 77 countries were performed at 306 venues.

On top of that, the whole city of Edinburgh is a World Heritage Site, and there apparently aren’t many hotels to begin with. I heard they even turned a former courthouse and a former prison into places to stay.

“If I take my time, there won’t be anything left.”

So I decided to book right away.

The places I booked a year ahead, along my route

My route goes up to Edinburgh in the far north, then works its way back south. Here are the places in that order.

① Edinburgh (2 nights): a pod hostel in the heart of the Old Town

I was moving on “cheap and fast,” so I booked without checking the cancellation terms carefully. That was my first mistake.

Still, the reviews were pretty good, and the building is clean. It seems to have been renovated, and people spoke very well of it.

Each pod has a place to charge your devices, a reading light and a lockable locker, and there seem to be a shared kitchen and a library too.

This place also has a bar in the basement, with different events every day (like walking tours and whisky tastings). For starting conversations with travelers from all over the world, it might be the perfect spot.

The main goals of this trip are walking around the cities and talking with locals and other travelers in English. So I’m really looking forward to staying here ♪( ´▽｀)

Oh, and this building has a bit of an unusual history. I’ll save that until I’ve actually stayed there, lol.

② A town near a national park (1 night): a B&B above a local pub

After Edinburgh, I’ll spend a night in a town near a beautiful national park, around the middle of Britain.

After booking Edinburgh, I hadn’t decided the days in between at all. So I decided that from here on, I’d only book places I could definitely cancel.

The ground floor is a local pub, and above it is a B&B (a place to stay with breakfast). The building is from the early 1800s, and the pub seems to be known for its homemade pies and puddings.

Staying above a pub where locals drop in for a drink. It feels like the most natural chance to talk with people who live there.

And it’s about ¥8,700 with breakfast. After Edinburgh, it feels even cheaper, lol.

③ York (1 night): an old pub inn inside the city walls

…Yep, I did it again. Non-refundable, round two (ノД`)

Wait, am I an idiot?

I had just decided “from here on, only places I can cancel,” too. Momentum is scary…

This one is also a pub inn, inside the city walls, just a short walk from York’s famous cobbled street. Apparently that street used to have lots of pubs, but this is the only one left.

Honestly, the reviews were mixed. A few people said you can hear the street until late at night. But considering the location and price, I don’t think it’ll bother me.

Suitman’s philosophy on hotels: as long as it’s not terrible, I just need somewhere to sleep. This trip is more about walking around and talking with people than relaxing at the hotel (^^)

④ The next night: one more night in York (added in October)

Another night in York, or head south and stay in a different town? I’m still thinking about it. I’ll update this post once I decide.

[Update, October 2026] After thinking it over, I decided to stay one more night in York. The second place is a quiet hotel outside the city walls. I booked it on Booking.com for £72.80 a night (about ¥15,100), with breakfast. I pay at the hotel, and I can cancel for free until two days before.

⑤ London (1 night): a budget hotel near the airport

On the last night, I’ll stay near Heathrow Airport to be ready for the next morning’s flight. I often read that departure procedures at Heathrow can take a while.

For this one, I kept it simple: “just sleep and go to the airport.”

How much did 5 nights cost?

(Prices when I booked a year ahead, in September 2026)

(Update: adding the second night in York, which I booked later, makes it 6 nights for about ¥99,000.)

Lined up like this, Edinburgh alone costs 2–3 times as much as the others. You can really see how expensive hotels get during the Fringe.

What happened after booking non-refundable

I regretted booking Edinburgh as non-refundable, so I asked Agoda, just in case, if they could waive the cancellation fee.

Their reply: “We are checking with the property and will contact you within 48 hours.”

I never got an email after that, but when I checked on Agoda’s site…

Request denied. The booking was still there as it was.

Right around then, my trip became officially confirmed, so maybe it worked out for the best, lol.

For now, I plan to stay there as booked. Just to be safe, I also sent the hotel an email in English to confirm.

By the way, while I was waiting for a reply, I checked other hotels for the same dates. It seems about ¥50,000–55,000 was the cheaper end of the going rate.

“Wait, so it was about the normal price after all…?”

For something I booked on impulse without checking the terms, I didn’t lose that much. Still, leaving it to luck isn’t great, lol.

But this is what makes travel fun! Yes, Suitman’s trip to the UK has already begun. I’m really looking forward to seeing what encounters this will lead to.

[Update] That confirmation email: I had actually sent it to the wrong address at first. When I resent it to the right one, I got a reply in English about 7 minutes later saying “your booking is confirmed.”

What I learned

• In August, Edinburgh hotels cost almost double because of the Fringe. Once you decide to go, book your hotel first
• Always check the cancellation terms for each place (Suitman messed up on two)
• For parts of the trip that aren’t decided yet, book places with free cancellation
• Booking hotels early is how I found out about the Fringe at all

That last one might have been the biggest.

If I had only started looking 3 or 4 months before, thinking “I should book a hotel soon”… I might not have found anywhere in Edinburgh during the Fringe. Just thinking about it makes me shiver ((((；ﾟДﾟ)))))))

It feels expensive now, but would it have been even more if I’d booked 3 or 4 months before…

Decide on a rough itinerary, grab hotels in the main cities quickly, then plan slowly over the rest of the year, which is both long and short. That approach worked for me.

Once your flights and hotels are booked, you can also start thinking early about trains and flights within the country.

Next, I’ll write about the preparations I made before leaving, like eSIMs and travel insurance (^^)

Oh, and once I’m back, I’ll write a proper review of each place based on actually staying there.

English expressions from this post (B2–C1)

Suitman is working toward Eiken Grade 1 (the top level of Japan’s best-known English test), so here are a few useful phrases from this post, picked out by AI.

① booked up (= fully reserved; no rooms left)

Hotels in Edinburgh get booked up quickly during the Fringe.

“Book” plus “up” means filled with reservations. Edinburgh during the Fringe looked like it was heading exactly there. “Fully booked” means the same thing.

② splash out (on ~) (= to spend a lot of money on something)

I didn’t plan to splash out on a hotel, but a capsule pod in Edinburgh cost me over 26,000 yen a night.

Picture money splashing out all at once, like water. I had no plans to splurge, and yet a pod cost ¥26,000 a night…

③ a stone’s throw (from ~) (= very close to something)

The inn in York is just a stone’s throw from the famous old street.

Close enough to throw a stone and hit it. You often see it in travel guides and real estate listings.

Dictionaries I used to check the meanings:

• booked up｜Cambridge Dictionary
• splash out｜Cambridge Dictionary
• a stone’s throw｜Cambridge Dictionary

References

• Edinburgh Festival Fringe (official)