The Brunswick Hotel in Glasgow, located at the heart of the Merchant City (the Soho of Glasgow) is the most wonderful hotel I have ever stayed in.
While I tend to like Victorian , old fashioned hotels, the modernist boutique hotel that the Brunswick is won me over completely because it is run like a 5 star hotel and is truly friendly.This is my 5th visit in 6 years. I wish it there was a chain of Brunswicks around the globe!
First it has an amazing location and the value is wonderful!
The Brunswick was spotless and recently redone and the 'warmth" that I associate with old fashioned hotels usually resides solely in the decor! The Brunswick is the warmest hotel I have ever found, the staff has been groomed to treat every guest and their needs with great consideration. The beds are comfortable, the linens new and clean, the rugs spotless and the bathrooms are very clean and comfortable with lovely towels and loads of hot water and deep tubs.. The rooms are small but designed with great comfort and practicality and the penthouse suite is chic and extraordinary. The owners are on premises everyday and they are the most charasmatic hoteliers I have ever encountered and you can see their taste, aesthtics and friendly consideration in every detail of how the hotel is run. I travel the world constantly staying in hotels of good and great calibre but staying at The Brunswick is simply on another level.The cafe attached to the hotel, which is a bar lounge in the evenings, is filled with the most interesting and accomplished people in Glasgow and they run the gamut from designers, architects, financiers to artists and bankers. It is inter-generational, young and old , conservative and trendy mingling together and that is rare and creates a fantasic envionrment.
By the way I am not a student, I am well over 40 years of age, hate noise and have pretty sophisticated taste and expectations.
The owners and the hotel staff , along with the patrons are avery friendly. The food in the cafe is first rate as is the service. Lets face it , Britain is expensive by American standards and to find this kind of economic value is pretty rare.
It is every sophisticated travelers dream home away from home because the staff and owners orient you to their city with insight for your needs and inside information that most of us buy city guides andscour websites to gather but usually can only come from knowing people who live in a particular city.
I just spent an overnight at The Brunswick on my way back to the states November 26th 2007. Glasgow was in the throes of Radiance, a Festival of Lights. The Brunswick was simultaneously hosting a children's charity event called Rent A Room, where several rooms were turned into art galleries and there was live music on three different floors. I went to sleep at midnight , the party went on till later but I was undisturbed, there was no noise bleeding through ,the sound proofing is great and I got to particpate as much as I like, like a local, not like a tourist.
I read some of the reviews here and I wondered what hotel these people had stayed in. All I can say is that if you are a business traveler who is rather conservative, you will find an economically priced room well below market rate in the city center with a great cup of coffee and a good breakfast, if you are a traveler with an appetite to experience local culture and desire more than anything to get to the heart of the city, while resting in great comfort and privacy, In the Brunswick you will find the pulsating, sophisticated heart of Glasgow, one of the chicest and most alive cities in the world.