Z Hotel Glasgow

Z Hotel Glasgow is ideally placed for exploring Glasgow city centre, next to George Square, 200 yards from Queen’s station but in spite of being perfectly central and in our case a Friday night, we had the quietest night sleep.

I can only compare the experience to what I imagine it would have felt like if I had been “sleeping on a fluffy little cloud”.

Let’s rewind a little. Z-hotel in Glasgow is one of a chain found in London, Liverpool and Glasgow. The publicity describes the hotels as, “Urbanite Stay” and for once, it’s exactly what it is… but with much more. Z-hotel is a new generation of hotel with the customers in mind. It’s a budget hotel. Unlike its competitors, none are located in a purpose built modern, soulless building. Take the Glasgow Z, it is in the building which formerly housed the Old Printworks pub. Rooms start at £40.

A imposing Glaswegian landmark restored sympathetically to very high ultra-modern standards. 104 bedrooms arranged around a central light-well over ground and five upper floors.In some rooms the old bricks lives in harmony with 40” HD Samsung TV, HDMI connection for portable devices, Sky TV complete with Sky package including all Sports and Movie channels and it goes without saying Free Wi-Fi.

So, where is the catch. There is no catch. There is a well-thought concept based on common sense. It’s all down to efficiency. The design is ultra-modern, rooms are finished to high specs., each has an en-suite wet room with frothy glass partitions, they all are exceptionally clean and very compact.

There is no wardrobe space, luggage and bin slots under the bed and coats hang on the wall but let’s face it, you are not here to spend Christmas with the family. In fact, Z-Hotel Glasgow offers you a child-free night, there is no space for an extra bed.

Emphasis is on comfort.

When we checked in, a client was handing a desk-fridge in, his own little fridge. The staff unphased, stored the item. I took it that the man who was travelling with a fridge was a regular customer. When it was time to check out I was dragged out of my bed by my partner’s rumbling tummy, By then it was 11am and even in a lay-back city such as Glasgow, breakfast in the afternoon might look a little sloppy.

Our room had a window, a view of the sky and the office block opposite. This is something nobody focuses on when staying in a city: hotel rooms rarely have a view.

Z-Hotel pushed this realisation to the maximum and doesn’t hesitate to offer rooms without a view. Some rooms don’t have a window. After all, if you are in town overnight only, do you really need a window as long as you have all the comfort you need?

Though I had a fit of giggles when spotting the rooms on the inside court-yard. They do have a window which faces the atrium and its glassed lift-shaft, this might not be to everyone’s liking.

Two more reasons to stay:

Cheese, yes as in creamy, local, delicious Scottish cheese. Bookings include a pre-dinner drink of glass of wine and complementary cheese from 17.00. and believe me you will not want to miss that.

If it wasn’t enough nothing tops the service. The staff are just amazing. When I remarked on how incredible everyone was, I was told a secret. To work for Z, you don’t need experience (except at management level) you’ll need to know about hospitality, of course, but the selection relies on the right personality.

Everyone can be taught the processes but nobody can teach how to smile and it’s with these wise words resonating in my ears that I left Z-Hotel Glasgow.