CitizenM makes Scotland debut

08 September 2010 16:07 GMT

The award-winning CitizenM hotel group has officially opened the doors to its first property outside Amsterdam, and has also confirmed four new hotels and more than 1,100 rooms in London and New York.

Since launching its first hotel at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport in summer 2008 and a second in Amsterdam city proper in spring 2009, CitizenM has established a unique brand of affordable luxury that gives global mobile travellers – the ‘M’ in CitizenM stands for ‘mobile’ – what they most want and need.

Now, the brand has entered new geographic territory with a 198-room hotel in Glasgow city centre that features the same design concept as its predecessors.

Not resting on their laurels however, architects Concrete have improved the functionality of the guestrooms with a new integrated bathroom, a larger closet and vanity, and a built-in worktable. The famously prefab rooms still feature king-size beds, wall-to-wall windows, Philips mood pads (an all-in-one device that controls everything from free on-demand movies to wake-up calls), power rain showers, and Sealy mattresses.

The building itself has already earned the Breeam ‘excellent’ status, which rates new constructions on their environmental viability.

CitizenM Glasgow is just the first step in a major campaign to expand the brand to new urban destinations. Just confirmed are two sites in London – one at the South Bank close to the Tate Modern Museum slated to open at the end of 2011, and the other on Tower Hill to open in time for the 2012 Olympics. Two new sites are also confirmed in New York – on 50th and Broadway on Times Square, and the hip Bowery on the fringe between Soho and the Lower East Side.

Roll-out plans elsewhere continue with a focus on China and Hong Kong, as well as the scouting of sites in Paris, Milan and Zurich.

www.citizenm.com
www.concreteamsterdam.nl