Glasgow Pond Hotel - Glasgow, United Kingdom 

We spent the weekend here to do some retail therapy. Booked direct with the hotel and spoke to Tracey, who was very helpful. Checked in with Monika (i'm sure this was her name, she was a friendly girl from Holland.) and went to our room on the 3rd floor which was completely non smoking. Free wifi was on offer and we took our laptop with us. Room was spotless and spacious. Bathroom was not large but adequate with a bath and shower over it. We had a pond view room which was nice. We have no complaints about this hotel at all. We run a bed and breakfast ourselves so we expect a high standard, and the Pond certainly met its 3-4 star grade. Ample free parking. We went into the city in the evening and a cab was between £7 and £8. Staff couldn't have been nicer. We forgot our toothbrushes and were given complimentary toothpaste and brushes. The only small negative was you could here people in the corridors outside the room, this was usually in the morning.

My partner and I stayed at the Pond hotel for one night on a visit to Glasgow to see a concert at the SECC. Taxi's from the Airport are £16 but the hotel is serviced by buses from the City centre (connections to the airport are also available). A taxi to the SECC is £6 which I thought represented very good value. As mentioned by previous reviewers, the hotel has quite an uninspiring exterior façade with building work still in progress around the main entrance. We found that the service was very good and were allowed to check in to our room before the allotted time. The receptionist was very helpful and checked us in to a 3rd floor room because there was a function scheduled for that evening on the ground floor bar. We ate a meal in the bar for lunch and this was approximately £6 each for a sandwich with chips. The room was superbly furnished with ample space, high standards of cleanliness and a free safe to keep our valuables secure. It was also very warm, which was important as it was almost freezing outside. The wide-screen television was wall mounted and had some basic free-to-air digital tv channels which were adequate for our stay. The bathroom facilities were excellent with plenty of clean towels and an excellent shower. The one problem I had with the hotel was the noise. There is a 24 hour petrol station/supermarket on the main road and I could hear cars sounding their horns and people using this well in to the night from my position in the hotel. Further, when the function downstairs had ended a group of men decided to chat outside the lift exit (directly opposite our room) for some time in the early hours of the morning. Admittedly, there is not a lot the hotel can do to combat people's ignorance but a sign asking to respect other guests would have been nice. The self-service breakfast was first rate, offering both traditional Full-English and continental styles. I cannot fault the quality of food which was hot and tasty with a chef on hand to prepare toast as required. Upon checking out, the staff were more than helpful in providing information about our forward journey i.e. local bus routes and taxi's. They allowed us to leave our luggage securely and free of charge whilst we went in to town to do some shopping and even called us a cab for free when we returned. All in all, I enjoyed my stay at the pond, however, if I were going to stay for longer I would recommend somewhere more centrally located.