Glasgow – ibis Styles Glasgow Centre George Square
I have to begin by mentioning that I’m still having problems with Accor, so it is probably best for me to recommend that people book using a third party agent.
With that little bit of negativity out of the way, I have to say that this hotel in Glasgow seems to be run to an incredibly high standard. I don’t know who the manager here is, but I’d suggest that they’re doing a great job and this is the best Accor visit since my little trip to Whitechapel Ibis Budget a few months ago.
This messaging works for me, I love the slight irreverence. The welcome at the reception was genuine and authentic, with the staff member being engaging and helpful. Nothing felt scripted, it just seemed to be a personable greeting, so my first impressions were very positive.
One of the worst hotels that I’ve visited was Ibis Styles Seven Kings, which I won’t whinge about again here. This hotel though nailed it though for me, the decor was modern, on-trend, bright, functional and everything was spotlessly clean. There was a desk, chair, sofa and thought had been put into the design elements here. I like the nod towards the cone statue as well, given that it’s just over the road.
It’s hard to say this without sounding entitled, but I like to receive little gifts like this to acknowledge that I seem to spend half the year in Accor hotels. I’m a fan of Irn-Bru and Tunnocks, so this was a lovely welcome for me, something really positive that didn’t cost the hotel much. This is a time to acknowledge the rather lovely carpet in the room as well.
It’s not possible to walk along the balcony, but I liked it being there.
I was on the top floor, so there were some decent views over Glasgow. As a bonus, there was air conditioning in the room and it worked perfectly at nicely chilling the room as I wanted (it’s too hot in Glasgow at the moment…).
I don’t know who wrote this, but they’re a good communicator. This fits entirely with the Ibis Styles brand, all nicely done again.
I very much like the local nod towards Tunnock’s.
They’ve even been creative with the carpet design, so someone has given massive thought to the decor at every customer touchpoint throughout the hotel. If I’m being honest, the lift arrangement wasn’t ideal, as they seemed to struggle with the number of customers. However, it didn’t reach the point of being annoying and guests seemed to be very cheery about everything, so all was well.
Brave to do this so that it doesn’t look like graffiti, but they’ve pulled it off. It’s a better look in the lift than in the photo to be fair, but I was trying to avoid my reflection being in the photo.
The restaurant and bar area, all spotlessly clean again.
And my free welcome drink. I’m going to credit this Ibis Styles with making an effort to provide a range of beers and they had around six, although draft options were off due to a gas supply issue that was outside of their control. Entirely acceptable to me, as being offered a choice of Corona or Budweiser isn’t ideal, although I accept there are greater things in the world to worry about.
I experienced no problems with this hotel at all, with no noise issues either internally or externally. I liked that they have WhatsApp if I needed to contact them and the staff were so friendly that this was the sort of hotel that I’m fairly confident would have fixed any issues if I had them. I tried to think of some things that the hotel could improve on, but there really aren’t any. The desk in the room looked a bit like it would collapse if someone jumped on it, a sign not of any problem with the hotel, but just how I couldn’t find any fault.
The reviews of the hotel are generally very positive, not that this surprises me in the slightest. I’ve had a look at some of the negative reviews, and some seem to be a little aspirational, such as the guest who was unhappy that the hotel reception didn’t deliver them milk to the room when they phoned. Another negative review said simply “No fridges…what hotel has no fridges and no netflix”, although the answer to that is actually most of them.
As a hotel, this is brilliant and I hope to come back here. All very nicely done. This is absolutely the reason that I like Accor hotels and why Ibis Styles used to be my favourable brand within the chain.
