Jurys Glasgow Hotel, Glasgow

...recommendations from friends about the Jurys chain, saw me at the website for the Jury’s Hotel, Glasgow.

LOCATION
Situated in Glasgow’s upmarket West-end around 10 minutes from the City Center (c£7 in a taxi) there is little obvious entertainment within easy walking distance. There is a hospital one side of the hotel and a Safeway supermarket and petrol station the other – the latter overlooks a small lake, but don’t expect ...
...on-line. I established that Jurys were offering us three rooms at a rate of £47 per room per night – can’t be bad, but there was no indication of whether this cost included breakfast. I contacted the hotel who confirmed that indeed it did. Liaison with one of my partner colleges established that there was definitely three of us travelling and hence I returned to the website to re-check the rate and sure enough it was still £47 which for a major metropolitan ... more

One day I will find that hotel with a bit of ‘wow’ factor like the one I experienced whilst staying in the Copthorne Aberdeen about 15 years ago, until then I shall just keep struggling on (hard life isn’t it?:))

An early start all day meeting in Glasgow meant we evidently needed somewhere to stay. With a fair bit of travelling to do over the next few months, budgets were limited – so what could I get for my money?

The usual search on the Internet, and recommendations from friends about the Jurys chain, saw me at the website for the Jury’s Hotel, Glasgow.

LOCATION
Situated in Glasgow’s upmarket West-end around 10 minutes from the City Center (c£7 in a taxi) there is little obvious entertainment within easy walking distance. There is a hospital one side of the hotel and a Safeway supermarket and petrol station the other – the latter overlooks a small lake, but don’t expect too much of a view from your window. The choice of location may explain why the Sale rugby team (including a few of the England International players) chose to stay there the night before their game in Glasgow, less opportunity to affect their results I guess. However, during our drive into the City, just a short distance from the hotel (c£3. in a taxi) we did pass a few rows of shops, curry houses and pubs.

If arriving by car, the hotel does have, what is becoming a rarity in current times, free car parking - although codes will be required to get out. However, with the hospital opposite it does get used for overspill parking at £2 a time - so parking is not necessarily guaranteed.

BOOKING
Booking was easy and guests save £10 for booking on-line. I established that Jurys were offering us three rooms at a rate of £47 per room per night – can’t be bad, but there was no indication of whether this cost included breakfast. I contacted the hotel who confirmed that indeed it did. Liaison with one of my partner colleges established that there was definitely three of us travelling and hence I returned to the website to re-check the rate and sure enough it was still £47 which for a major metropolitan city such as Glasgow is really rather good. Another call to the hotel ensured that breakfast was included and I proceeded to make the booking on their secure site, details required were the standard arrival/departure dates, home address and credit card details. Upon submitting the details I received a confirmation e-mail advising me of my confirmation number and cancellation police, which is 4pm on the day of arrival.

I am responsible for settling my own bills and claiming the money back, whereas my travelling companion's employer likes to settle bills directly with the hotel. They duly contacted the hotel using my confirmation number and were advised that this was perfectly acceptable. They were however informed that breakfast was not included in the rate. Needless to say, this involved me making a rather irate call to the hotel to advise them that I had received confirmation that breakfast was indeed included and was told that on this occasion it would be. It does seem however that Jurys need to sort their administration out as reception advised me that there was no query and that the rate did include breakfast.

CHECK-IN
Arrival at the hotel was by Taxi, at a ‘ouch’ cost of £15 one-way in a Glasgow Airport 'White' Taxi. Upon check-in the receptionist informed me that she had no record of the different ways the bills were to be settled resulting in my companions becoming rather concerned and me facing a lovely little bill for 3 rooms plus meals. To say I was suitably unimpressed was an understatement. The matter was resolved the following morning following a number of phone calls and a fax, but it was touch and go and the hotel did apologise and confirm that it was their error.

Jury’s Doyle hotel state that they offer customers consideration, yet they failed to offer me the alternative of smoking or non-smoking rooms and I ended up in the latter. A complaint to reception left me informed that I could in fact smoke in the room, not very pleasant for someone staying after me, but that’s the hotels problem not mine.

THE ROOM
You have seen one, you’ve seen them all. I had a double bed, bed settee, trouser press, tea and coffee making facilities, hairdryer, colour remote controlled TV with teletext and a few extra channels to the norm including Eurosport and Sky One.

Midget size towels were provided, but no freebies; soap was provided through fixed units on the wall. The room was cold and sound proofing was literally non-existent, the hotel shaking every time someone closed a door.

The shower was a fixed unit, which, as someone who is only 5ft 1-1/2 inches irritates the hell out of me as I end up washing my hair whether I want to or not, as someone who tends to bath/shower at least twice a day, particularly when travelling, this really winds me up. The bath was abandoned when I realised that the water was a horrible brown murky colour.

Iron and ironing board were supplied upon request, again with midgets in mind, the ironing board was small, to say the least.

LEISURE FACILITIES
This is one area that Jurys Glasgow did excel themselves. They had a large swimming pool, Jacuzzi, Sauna and Gym, all of which were free to residents, by producing your room card. Unfortunately I forgot to take my kit with me and didn’t get chance to try them out – I made up for it in Stafford though, but more about that another day.

EATING
The restaurant was not particularly cheap, with meals starting from around £10 upwards. They do however, offer a small selection of bar meals in Kavanagh’s bar – although a number of choices were not available during our stay. We enjoyed a cracking chicken curry, nice and spicy but not too hot with rice and chips, £8.25. Half a lager from the bar was £1.30 – bit pricier than back here in South Wales, although as both my companions were not drinking it was rather a tame affair and I was back in my room by 9pm.

BREAKFAST
Way to go – how to judge the standard of a hotel – very good.

Every type of fruit juice imaginable – a range of fresh fruits, cereals and rolls followed by a full English feast consisting of:

· Sausages
· Bacon
· Mushrooms
· Fried Eggs
· Fried Bread
· Baked Beans
· Hash browns

Toast and Coffee or tea - all very tasty, hot and morish.

The hotel also apparently offers conference facilities for up to 140 people and has been suggested for our December venue, but we shall have to wait and see.

SUMMARY
I am not a very good sleeper at the best of times, but staying at Jury’s interfered with this even more – the rooms were noisy, lacked soundproof and cold; overall not an ideal situation – that said at £47 per night with good leisure facilities for a major city I could be tempted to overlook the bad points and just make sure I am not doing anything too strenuous the following day. I have given it a good simply because of the competitive pricing and excellent leisure facilities.

Want to find out more?
Great Western Road, Glasgow G12 0XP, UK.
Tel: 0141-334 8161
Or visit:
http://www.jurysdoyle.com/uk/jury's_glasgow.htm

Jury’s currently have hotels and/or inns (the apparently cheaper alternative – although in Manchester only by £2 per night) in the UK:
· Belfast
· Manchester
· Edinburgh
· Cardiff
· Bristol
· Birmingham
· London

Jurys also have a couple of American outlets and numerous ones in Eire.

UPDATED: 11/12/02
Just stayed here again - my god those walls are thin and the corridor on the first floor is well dodgy. Again they didn't have any smoking rooms but told me to smoke in the room anyway - my non-smoking colleague on the other hand had a smoking room and said it stank - so much for Jury's policy on fairness for customers. My room has a thermostatically controlled shower and bath tap - but other colleagues whose kit hadn't been upgraded said they alternated between scalding and freezing. The water is also still coming ou a rather yucky brown colour.

Although the location is out in the back of beyond you will always find a steady stream of taxi's in the carpark and therefore should never have to wait long for one.

Their bar is might expensive - a round of drinks for 3 people cost nearly £12 - obviously how they make up for offering cheap rooms.

We also took advantage of their Conference facilities - the room is situated at the rear of the restaurant which meant every time you needed to go to reception for something you had to pass through the Restaurant which just happened to hav a funeral party there this afternoon - not the best arrangement.LUNCH
Lunch was served on a buffet basis - a choice of lentil soup or melon followed by:

• roast pork,
• salmon,
• veggie option or
• Gammon and Mandarin (whatever happened to good old pineapple or egg?) served with carrots, boiled and roast potatoes

Sue

 

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