There's one thing that instantly annoys us about the ABode Hotel Glasgow: that arty capitalization of the second letter. Any self-respecting word processing software immediately whips that "B" into a lowercase letter, and so it should, we think.
But let's get beyond such pedantic issues for a second. The ABode in Glasgow has promise: we like that its 59 rooms are classified into four levels, comfortable, desirable, enviable and fabulous. (Much like W Hotels categories of rooms--wonderful, spectacular, fabulous, mega, wow, etc.")
Plus, it's centrally located near train stations and they give you free WiFi in the café. So far so good.
We were lucky enough to stay at Scotland's Gleneagles Hotel just before Christmas (check out the profile pic), and we must say that no hotel does a holiday better than Gleneagles. Which is why you might want to take advantage of the hotel's Easter offer, running from March 21 to 24.
Of course, as the dollar continues to suck (even yen is worth more these days) be prepared for a little sticker shock. But also keep in mind that while Gleneagles is a luxury property, it has so far bucked the trend of unbundling rates to lure you in, only to smack you with the non-inclusives upon check out. With each package, there is no minimum stay restriction and all include use of the hotel's leisure facilities, as well as some meals.
Secure a bed and breakfast for about $641 per night; or dinner, bed and breakfast from $834. There's even a deal for children who share a room: high tea, bed, breakfast and activities from $437. In addition to all this, Gleneagles also is hosting what it calls "an informal" program of Easter events, including special activities for children and young adults, as well as a traditional Easter Sunday lunch for an additional $91 per person.
You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.
You'd have to check a lot of our Anti-Views to find a view as bad as this one from the Ramada Glasgow City Hotel in Scotland. As disappointed visitor to Glasgow Cellach discovered, it wasn't only the view that failed to be first class last month:
When the web site said "We are currently undertaking some minor refurbishments, we hope you won't be inconvenienced during your stay" the alarm bells should have rung. I tripped over the pile of paint cans on the way into my room last night and ate my breakfast this morning accompanied by the sound of power tools and some impressive Glaswegian cursing. The whole place (food included) was covered in a fine layer of dust. If I tell you it didn't do much to impair the flavour you might get the general idea...
Presumably some rooms have a better outlook than a grubby brick wall but it still might be better to what until the refurb's over.
You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.
Unless you're some kind of trainspotting freak, then this view from rooms at the back of Jurys Inn Glasgow would probably not be to your liking.
The pro of having a bunch of train tracks right outside your window, of course, is that your hotel is in a really central location.
Anti-View spotter wilko1978 says that Jurys Inn also has friendly staff, great air-conditioning and ice dispensing machines on every second floor (apparently that's good enough for him) but the food, internet and phone calls were expensive. And then there's that terrible view.
If it's good enough for George Bush, it should be good enough for us too. Host of the 2005 G8 Summit, Scotland's Gleneagles Hotel has always sounded pretty posh, but a recent Guardian review made it sound, well, a bit posh, but also quite a lot of fun.
The opulent touches are there at this famous golf resort: there's a heavily-booked, 2-Michelin-star restaurant, floor heating and remote control curtains. Still there's a lot of fun to be had here, with activities like minigolf, falconry (getting those massive birds to land on your arm, that is), and even shooting, all with instructors available--well, all except the mini-golf.
The Guardian reviewer wasn't happy with the state of the too-much-concrete spa, or the 90-minute limit on bicycle borrowing, but other than that, Gleneagles got a big thumbs up. Another surprise is it's not prohibitively expensive: a current deal for April offers double rooms including breakfast for $380. Obviously not the same room that George Bush stayed in.
It seems like we're all becoming so huggy and friendly that we all want to sleep in the same hotel room: and so some hotels are starting to provide something that seems like a backwards step to a youth hostel, but is actually filling a need: rooms that sleep up to eight people.
The latest "big room" can be found in Edinburgh's Osbourne Hotel, and they're claiming their 4.5 by 5 meter room as "the world's biggest hotel room".
Apparently the trend towards family and group travel, particularly strong in Europe with the surge in budget airlines, means hotels are more often getting requests for big rooms rather than interconnected ones. Hotel staff say guests arrive in packs "for a weekend of fun and mayhem", especially for stag and hens' nights. Party on! The reviews of the Osbourne, however, are pretty mixed, so if you don't really need the world's biggest hotel room then perhaps your pick in Edinburgh should be the hallowed room where Harry Potter reached his end.
The hotel is a Baronial house located on this little island on the West Coast of Scotland. The place is beyond private with over 300 acres for the use of guests. Started up in 1973 by the Buchanan-Smith family, the place is now run by prodigal son, Beppo Buchanan-Smith, who also does the blogging.
The posts range from the mundane (what the weather is actually like versus what the weather reports predicted), to the upkeep on the hotel grounds to the latest word on Beppo's brother Chay and his golf swing.
The blog is very similar to our fair lassie Lorna Jay who blogs about the Spread Eagle hotel in Scotland, except we just might prefer Lorna's knitting club updates to posts about "Scottish Wildlife":
Over the years we have seen many wonderful sights and many photographs of the beasts but last week one of our guests though he was seeing double as he leaned out of his bedroom window to snap the badgers below as not 2 or 3 but 4 badgers had appeared. Obviously either the whisky is improving or the equity rates are increasing!!
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by amandak
Joining the ranks of hotel bloggers is the 
