New Glasgow hotel offers service, value & style
A sleek new penthouse hotel has opened in the heart of Glasgow’s vibrant city centre.
The 30 bed Grasshoppers Glasgow boutique hotel offers modern luxury at affordable prices in a fantastic city centre location, just metres from bustling Buchanan Street, routinely named the best UK shopping street outside London.
With the accent on service, style and value, the new hotel will showcase the best of Scottish products.
The hotel is located on the sixth floor of the city’s landmark Caledonian Chambers building, overlooking Glasgow’s busy Central Station.
Over the past year, the top floor of the historic building has been converted into a sleek, contemporary hotel at a cost of £1.25 million, in a joint collaboration between hotelier Barrie Munn and Network Rail.
Grasshoppers Glasgow hopes to attract cost conscious business and leisure travellers who want to enjoy a touch luxury without paying over the odds. Single rooms are available from £70, and twin or doubles £80 per night.
All guests enjoy complimentary breakfast and free wifi internet access. Grasshoppers guests can enjoy 32” slimline LED TVs with SKY HD, featuring SKY Sports and SKY Movies in each bedroom.
The Scandinavian style bedrooms feature Caledonian oak floors, ash laminate furniture, specially designed and made for Grasshoppers, handmade king size beds with Egyptian cotton sheets, Grohe power showers and complimentary Arran Aromatics toiletries. The views from the bedrooms of Glasgow’s skyline are spectacular.
Each room is individually designed with handmade wallpapers and wood paneled walls, displaying engravings of Glasgow by local artist Ian McNicol.
The complimentary breakfast features the freshest Scottish ingredients, including eggs, bacon and sausages supplied by award winning Ramsay of Carluke, and freshly baked bread and locally supplied fruit and cheese, served in the hotel’s dining room, The Kitchen.
Evening meals are freshly prepared by one of Glasgow’s best delis, Roots and Fruits, and feature two and three course meals, priced £19.50 and £24.50 respectively. Meals include a variety of soup, salad, meat, fish and vegetarian dishes and a selection of desserts, fresh fruit and cheese.
Even the coffee is local, roasted and ground by Cardross based Home Ground Coffee Ltd.
Guests can help themselves to free tea, coffee and cakes throughout their stay. A range of readymade foods are also available for late arriving guests, ideal for travellers arriving after a long journey.
The hotel is also launching a rewards scheme for regular guests known as the Grasshopper Club. Benefits include fixed seasonal room rates and discounts on selected shops, restaurants and city attractions. Members will also receive a free Sunday night, subject to availability, when they book a weekend break.
Owner Barrie Munn, a former lawyer from Cambridge, said: “Guests at Grasshoppers Glasgow can enjoy all the luxuries of an upscale boutique hotel, but with all the charm and service of a family run bed and breakfast. Grasshoppers is distinctive, unfussy and proudly Scottish. And we have an unbeatable location, just yards from Central Station and one block from bustling Buchanan Street in the heart of the city’s Style Mile.
“The initial feedback from guests has been very positive. There is certainly a demand for this type of affordable boutique hotel, particularly among business and city break travellers who are looking for something a little out of the ordinary. We believe that our attention to detail, value for money and commitment to local produce will prove popular with business and leisure visitors. We are also confident that we can attract a growing share of the conference market, which has been hugely successful in Glasgow.”
Councillor Gordon Matheson, Leader of Glasgow City Council and Chair of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, said: “The opening of the new Grasshoppers Hotel is fantastic news for Glasgow. Developments such as these are driven by Glasgow’s success in forging ahead with plans to create customers through major events, conferences, tourism, and through its position as Glasgow: Scotland with style. The 2014 Commonwealth Games necessitates major infrastructure development which in turn encourages investors to develop their business interests in Glasgow.”
David Biggs, Director of Property at Network Rail, said: “We are always looking for ways to drive greater value from the railway estate, and this partnership with Barrie Mann does exactly that – by finding a new commercial use for surplus office space in this historic city-centre building. This exciting development has given Glasgow a new boutique hotel ideally located at Scotland’s busiest station, and generates vital funds for Network Rail all of which will be reinvested into building a bigger and better railway.”
For more information, visit: grasshoppersglasgow.com
