September 2016, Our 1 night/2 days stay experience
When planning our trip to Scotland in September 2016 we thought long and hard which hotels to book in Glasgow. One of our choices was the Indigo Glasgow, because it was unusual in regards to its history and design.
Originally the building was the first power station in Glasgow, supplying the surrounding houses with electricity.
Indigo is part of the Intercontinental Hotel Group and their boutique offering, which means the Indigo brand within the IHG Group offers a more individual design and heritage as let’s say their Holiday Inn properties.
This particular stay was our first experience with the brand during our one night stay.
The hotel is not far from the Main Train Station and the Hilton Glasgow [in which we stayed a few yeas ago] and housed in a Georgian building. There are steps leading up to the entrance with a revolving door.
The lobby was small, but full of character and original details with the reception to the left and the restaurant and bar by Marco Pierre White to the right. There was a seating area for two with complimentary local newspapers offered near the elevators.
We liked the high ceilings and stucco walls.
Check in was done quickly and Fraser, the receptionist, chatted with us about his trip to Berlin.
We were soon on the way to our Standard King Room on the 4th floor.
It was larger than we expected with very high ceilings and windows.
Our views were over the courtyard and surrounding houses.
The room had a feminine feel with red tones and flower printed wall paper. The flower theme continued throughout our room incl. the golden curtains and the carpet. There was also a wooden floor.
Another color used was white to give a contrast against the reds used.
We loved the room and its romantic feel. It was enhanced by a photograph of a Glasgow landmark and by a part of the wallpaper incorporating another local landmark.
The bed was comfortable and large. The headboard was made of leather and accentuated the theme of the room by having red buttons added.
On one nightstand was a modern but 50s inspired radio and IPod docking station. It was cool and we liked it.
The writing desk had the “Sunday Times Travel Magazine” and “This is Glasgow” and “Welcome to the neighborhood” brochure including other Indigo hotels, for example Duesseldorf, Tel Aviv and Edinburgh.
A small mirror was also a welcome addition by the writing desk.
The free Wi-Fi internet was blazing fast at all times when we used it.
The flat screen TV had only regional channels and the most important news channel available was BBC News. No real problem, but a more international selection would have been nice, especially when staying longer at this beautiful boutique hotel.
We enjoyed the chair with ottoman and coffee table.
There was also a wardrobe with mini bar, which was complimentary, and one that was sensible. It included one Schweppes Lemonade, one Diet Coke, two Strathmore still water, two Tunnock’s milk chocolate covered caramel wafer biscuits [More of these please!] and one pack of Real Crisps, hand cooked with sea salt and malt vinegar flavor. We took the wafers, the water and the lemonade. Having not tried Tunnock’s before we are now big fans and buy them regularly, even when not in Scotland.
There was a full size free-standing mirror too.
In room dining was 24 hours available. Some dishes were from Marco Pierre White Steakhouse, Bar & Grill. Otherwise there were for example sandwiches, starting from 5.25 GBP (ca. 5.95 Euro / ca. 6.70 USD), soup of the day 6.50 GBP (ca. 7.35 Euro / ca. 8.25 USD), Thai Chicken Curry 12.95 GBP (ca. 14.65 Euro / ca. 16.40 USD) and desserts from 2.95 GBP (ca. 3.35 Euro / ca. 3.75 USD).
Tea/coffee making facilities were available too and the tea was by Brodies of Edinburgh.
The bathroom was medium sized and stylish incl. beautifully printed tiles plus sink, toilet and shower only. There was a rainfall shower head and a hand held one. Amenities were by Aveda, which we like and use at home too.
The staff was responsive to any of our requests, like delivering more shampoo or replacing our hair dryer, when it didn’t work all of a sudden. All these services had been promptly delivered with a smile.
Our rate included breakfast, which was small, but of high quality and sufficient.
One hot item was included per guest and the cold items were served buffet style. There were three types of bread and pastries, two types of cheese and juices, some cold cuts, fresh fruits including watermelon and strawberries, one muesli, cereals, granola, milk, a smoothie, seeds and dried fruits.
The muesli was a bit difficult to get out of the container and I never figured out how the toaster was working.
Special mention has to go to the gluten free section.
We really loved our stay and thought the one night was too short. We would love to return again to this wonderful boutique hotel offering from IHG incl. Glasgow hopefully in our future.
©2017
