I thought that the hotel we stayed at in Glasgow, London, and Paris is worth a post of its own and that's because there are too many things to say about it. How we ended up staying at this hotel, I shared here.

You must know that I try to be as truthful as possible on my blog (and wherever else I share), the reason why I wanted to write a separate post about our experience at these hotels.

I also have to say that we paid for the entire stay at all three locations ourselves, and this is not sponsored in any way. Choosing a hotel when traveling is a daunting task, with so many options and prices out there, so I thought I would try to help with your choices.

Disclaimer: Everything shared in this post is my true, honest opinion. If I mention a website, it is because I personally used it, and I was not paid to mention it. ​

First of all, while booking directly on their website, we signed up to become members and received 10% off each booking (open for all). We also liked the fact that if you refuse housekeeping, they make a donation to a charity every time you skip it. If you stay at any of their hotels, please consider it.

When we arrived at the Glasgow location, we were pleasantly surprised. First of all, the location is very close to the old city center. The interior design is very unique and quirky but tasteful with a funny approach. In fact, their mission as they state on their website is to "become the leading transformational hotel, inspiring a new generation of modern travelers in the big cities of the world by offering an affordable luxury lifestyle, while providing sustained premium returns to stakeholders".

But back to the design… The "lobby" areas are stylish, with lots of seating and ways to relax. Since the concept of their rooms is simple and minimal, (designed for sleeping, basically), they pull out all the stops with their lobbies, to make them feel like living rooms. Also, they have set up computer "work areas", where you can look up the city attractions, print your boarding passes, or even work (but remember that it's a public computer after all). All their hotels also have some amazing meeting rooms that can be booked up and used by anyone.

While researching their website, we were intrigued by the 1-minute check-in/out process and were wondering how that's achieved. Well, when we got there, we found out. You self check-in/out and "make" your room key (that you can keep as a souvenir) and yes, it takes about that long, if you know what you're doing. Of course, there is help, if you need it from the people working at the hotel that are called "ambassadors", and yes, that's how you should address them.

After checking in, we headed to our room as we were very curious to discover this hotel further. The rooms are not your American or even typical hotel room size for sure. They are small but well planned. The bed literally takes half of the room (it's huge) and is by the window. If you are traveling with someone and like to sleep by the window, get in bed first so you don't have to climb over your roomie as there is no other way to get in. The toilet + shower is literally a cabin (with some privacy), and the sink + mirror is outside this cabin, in the open room. You are provided with AM and PM shower gel/shampoo in containers attached to the shower wall (no mini plastic bottles here), so all you have to do is enjoy your rainforest shower. My complaint was that the sink was very small (like tiny).

The room features are generally operated from an iPad (lights, blinds, alarm, TV programming, music); we did have some malfunctions with the curtains getting stuck, or the iPad freezing - technology, eh? Other room "amenities" included mood lighting, international plugin, free fast wi-fi, and... free movies! Yes, we actually watched movies every single night there (from old to new) for free.

Once we arrived at the London and Paris location, we found that they tailor the movies to the cities, if they can, aka, in London and respectively, Paris, we watched movies that "took place" in or talked about the city we were in. But back to Glasgow...

Once we settled into our room, we went to check out the rest of the hotel and look for food -- we had been traveling for about 24 hours at that point and were TIRED. We found ourselves at the canteenM looking for food. We were greeted by very friendly, (seemingly) happy and genuine staff and while we were checking the menu (they had a small menu but delicious dishes), we started a discussion about anything and everything. We ended up spending more than an hour there (it wasn’t too busy), chatting and having a good time, until we had to head back to our room, as we were becoming incoherent due to exhaustion.
​
Oh, and I have to say that the food we had there was the best food we had during our entire stay in Glasgow. And I don't mean sandwiches and whatever else you can buy anytime there, I mean an actual prepared meal. I don't remember exactly what we had, but that we went with a vegetarian, and a vegan dish ad they were delicious.

We typically don't like to go looking for breakfast in the morning, so we added it to all of our stays (you pay extra for it - it’s cheaper if adding at the time of booking - and the hours are 6-11am, say whaaat?), and it was absolutely worth it. From fresh fruits, "made to order" coffee (I always had an almond milk latte), fresh pastries, vegetarian (or vegan, not sure) sausage, mushrooms, smoked salmon, cheese, and other things I wasn't interested in (regular sausage, bacon, boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, Scottish haggis, yogurt, etc), I think it was a pretty good selection.

We stayed at this hotel for 7 nights and we definitely enjoyed it. The comfortable bed and the shower were just what we were looking forward to after a long day of exploring.

Once we arrived at our hotel location in London (they actually have three there), we were blown away. After long research, we decided to go with the Tower of London location and were thrilled to see that we were literally across the street from the Tower of London! Of course, you had to pay extra to get the view from the room, but we decided against it, as the plan wasn’t to spend much time in it. ​Instead, we chose the courtyard view, which was a pretty bad choice as there was no privacy; we had to keep our blinds closed all the time, which made us feel like we were in a box - just so you know.

Of course, we had malfunctions at this location as well, as the drawer would not close fully and the lights would not come on when the alarm went off in the morning (they're supposed to). This reminds me of the way we were awakened each morning at CitizenM… we chose the alarm to sound like the jungle and I have to say that it was pleasant to wake up to that.

Oh, I forgot to mention that built in the bed is a massive drawer, where you can store your luggage to have it out of your way (trust me, you'll need that). Also, the rooms have a safe, which at some locations, is installed in this drawer.

For our first day in London, we ended up having our first meal at the canteenM again (still delicious). This location also has a rooftop bar, CloudM, from where you can get amazing views of The Tower of London, Tower Bridge, and more.
​
The breakfast here had a few other options (assortment of gems, breads, and juices), baked mushrooms with feta, and baked tomatoes. The vegetarian (or vegan?) sausage had to be requested, so unless you knew about its existence, you would have missed it. Breakfast was usually busy here.

While still nice, the staff was a bit more impersonal here; London, they say... Still, the location and the price could not be beaten.

Now, in Paris, we decided on the Gare de Lyon location (again, they have a total of three in Paris). The location was OK, and the staff seemed to have a bit of superiority about them; maybe it was the language barrier (yes, they spoke English), but we barely talked to them or they to us, and they seemed more eager to chat among themselves than to offer help. I do have to give them credit though, as they were very helpful with our taxi ordeal.

Being Paris and all, the breakfast was a bit disappointing to me. I swear they had better selection and pastries in Glasgow and London than they had in the "city of pastries". They were very slow at stocking up and many times we ended up with little food or options. While they had several types of bread (looking very appetizing), we noticed staff and guests touching it with bare hands to cut it, which, I'm sorry, is just unsanitary. Breakfast here was usually very busy.

Still, our stay there was pleasant enough. This hotel was the newest out of the three we stayed at.

Overall, I would say that this hotel chain was a great choice and we did enjoy our stay there. We were sad that they didn't have them in the other cities we visited, as we would have booked them in a heartbeat -- there is something about familiarity and knowing what to expect, especially when you’re traveling for so long. For me, being the hotel freak I am (aka, by default, I don't like them), I generally enjoyed my stay at CitizenM very much.

Note: I didn't take photos of the hotel interior as there are plenty online and on their website. I only have these ones of the exterior in London (above), and Paris (below).

Have you ever heard of CitizenM?

Until next time.

xoxo,

Em