citizenM Glasgow

Rooms and decor

Open the door to your room at citizenM Glasgow for the first time and you'll find a compact square of about 14 sq m that has been designed about as cleverly as a small room can be. Floor-to-ceiling glass runs the full length of one wall, so a small space feels surprisingly open and bright. The bed they call XL is bigger than a standard King and stretches across the full width of the room — lots of pillows, a thick soft duvet, and a chorus of reviews agreeing the sleep is especially good. The piece everyone talks about is the bedside iPad: one tap changes the whole mood of the room, from light color and brightness to the blackout blinds that slide open and shut on their own, the air-con, the TV, the radio and the alarm. Don't want the iPad? Download the citizenM app and run it from your phone. The TV has Chromecast, so you can stream Netflix, Prime or Disney+ free from your own account. The shower is the odd one out — a frosted-glass box standing in the middle of the room, which looks cool and modern but offers little privacy, so traveling with a not-so-close friend can get awkward. Couples should be fine.

Food and amenities

The heart of every citizenM is the lobby, and Glasgow is no exception. Walk in and you hit a roomy space split into several zones: long Vitra sofas in bright colors, Eames chairs, art and collectibles placed in pockets, and long tables to work at with fast free Wi-Fi — effectively a co-working space for the neighborhood. There's no traditional check-in desk, just a row of iPads to check yourself in (or you can do it on the app beforehand). Staff here call themselves ambassadors, dress casually, and float around answering questions and making drinks. The standout is canteenM, the food-and-bar counter open 24 hours. By day it serves barista coffee, warm breakfast (including a light Scottish breakfast), salads, sandwiches from the chiller and hot food you heat in the microwave; by evening it becomes a bar with signature cocktails and draft beer. Take it up to your room or sit in the lobby and watch the world go by. Plenty of reviews note that on a rainy Glasgow day, which is often, you don't need to hunt for a bar; canteenM is enough.

Location and getting there

Location is another ace for citizenM Glasgow. It stands at 60 Renfrew Street, right on the corner of Hope Street in the City Centre. Two minutes out the door gets you to Sauchiehall Street, the city's main run of shops, pubs and restaurants, and the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall at the head of Buchanan Street. Five more minutes west reaches the Glasgow School of Art, the iconic building by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and the Theatre Royal. For serious shopping, head straight downhill to Buchanan Galleries and the St Enoch Centre in under 10 minutes. Glasgow Queen Street station, with trains to Edinburgh and northern Scotland, is about an 8-minute walk, while Glasgow Central, running south to London, is roughly 10 minutes. For the airport, Glasgow (GLA) is about 20-25 minutes on the 500 bus or by taxi. In short, if you want to wake up and walk Glasgow on foot — the shopping, the Mackintosh trail and the culture — this spot scores a perfect ten.

Things to know before booking

Straight talk to help you decide. The complaint that comes up most is room size: at around 14 sq m these are fairly small, so if you pack a big suitcase or stay a full week, unpacking gets tight. Storage is limited to a small wardrobe and the space under the bed. Second is the bathroom — the frosted-glass box in the middle of the room. The glass is frosted, but you can still see shapes, and a number of guests feel the privacy is low, so traveling with someone you don't know well can be uncomfortable. Third, there's no kettle and no minibar in the room; tea and coffee lovers have to go down to canteenM. Some reviews also flag that lower floors facing Renfrew Street can pick up traffic and pedestrian noise on weekend nights, so if you're a light sleeper, ask for a higher floor. Parking is very limited too — there's none of the hotel's own, so you'd use a nearby public lot and pay for it. Come without a car, though, and trains plus walking make all of that a non-issue.

Our take

After reading through hundreds of real reviews, citizenM Glasgow is a design hotel that sells the cleverness of turning a small room into a modern, fun place to stay — the comfortable XL bed, the iPad that runs everything, canteenM open 24 hours as restaurant, bar and work corner, and the central Renfrew Street location that walks to every key spot in town. At an average of roughly $91 to $183 a night, it's well within reach for what you get. If the trip in your head is doing Glasgow without a car — waking up to walk the Mackintosh trail, catching a show at the Royal Concert Hall, shopping Buchanan Street, then sipping a cocktail back in canteenM. This fits perfectly. But if you expect a roomy luxury room with a separate bathtub, a kettle and minibar and a fully private bathroom, the small rooms and frosted-glass shower may not be your thing. Overall we give it 8.6/10, best for couples, solo travelers, design lovers and light-packing business travelers who value location, design and value over square meters and a bathtub.