Val Penny's Hotel and Restaurant Reviews The Traveller's Guide to Hotels and Restaurants around the World

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and there is much to see and do.  Most recently I visited the city because my nephew’s band, Broken Records were playing a gig at King Tut’s as part of their UK tour. I traveled to the city to join my sister, brother-in-law, niece and some friends for the concert.  When I stay in Glasgow, I usually stay at the Glasgow Hilton however, on this occasion, as I was in the city and staying over for a specific event, I decided to stay in a hotel close to Glasgow Central Train Station.  It was convenient and my friend Josephine had stayed in the hotel and said it suited her and her sister well.

I had never stayed in this hotel chain before and was looking forward to my visit.  When I arrived, reception was busy but I was unimpressed by the young lady at the desk telling me how tired she was and that she was looking forward to the end of her shift.  My room, 423 was at the far end of the corridor, tucked away in a corner.  The room was much larger than average with a double and a single bed in it.  It was spotlessly clean with a generous supply of teas and coffees. The en-suite bathroom was equally clean and there was a supply of additional towels.  I was surprised there was no bath mat and that the floor of the en-suite by the sink was quite wet.

I wanted to check the news on the tv and have a bath before I went out to meet my friends but I had trouble getting the tv to work. I tried every button on the set and the remote – I even resorted to reading the instruction pamphlet!  As a last resort I called reception and they arranged to send up somebody to help me. While waiting for the assistance, I decided to run my bath. The light in the bathroom did not respond to the switch. It was then I noticed the point that I was meant to put my card into this to make an electricity connection. I had no sooner put my card into the slot when the bathroom light came on, the tv worked and the maintenance man knocked at my door. I felt very stupid at not having worked that out earlier but did feel reception could have told me about the connection.  The maintenance man had arrived very quickly to my door and was very kind and polite.

Anyway, I ran my bath. The water pressure was good and the water was hot but there were no bars of soap nor any shower gel or shampoo.  There was liquid soap and moisturiser attached to the wall.  I could not reach these from the bath so I had to stand up and reach the liquid soap and then sit down in the bath to rinse it off again. Obviously management prefer you to shower rather than bathe!  When I was cleaning my teeth and putting my make-up on I noticed the sink in the bathroom was chipped in two places around the rim and the sink had no plug: this was disappointing.

Nevertheless, the hotel was very conveniently situated and I was able to meet my friends and family for dinner easily. We then went to the Broken Records gig at King Tut’s, St. Vincent Street, Glasgow. It was excellent. Support artist Stevie Milne from Little Kicks was terrific too and we all had a great evening. It was easy to get back to the hotel from the concert.

However, back at the hotel, the bed was very comfortable but not made properly and was that irritating. Then in the morning a member of staff served me coffee in a cracked mug: the newspaper I was given by the staff, The Metro, which is a free paper, was previously read by somebody who had ripped a bit out of it. It’s a free paper, people – give me a new one!

So, would I recommend this hotel? No. Would I want to stay there again? No. There are many central hotels in Glasgow. The convenience of the situation of the Jury’s Inn would not be enough to entice me back.

Valerie Penny