Budget Hotels in Scotland

It sounds a bit like a bad joke, but a story in the Scottish Daily Record (www.dailyrecord.co.uk) says that there has been explosive growth in budget hotels in Scotland. Motel One (www. motel-one.dom/de/) and Tune Hotel (www.tunehotels.com) are among the chains that have opened new properties in Edinburgh, the picturesque capital.

Motel One is a German-based chain that is expanding into other countries in Europe. Its slogan is great design for little money, and its ultramodern hotels can be found in a number of German cities. The lowest price for a room I saw quoted on their Website was 49 euros, in Koln. Tune Hotels are based in Asia but have expanded into the U.K.

In Glasgow, budget hotel offerings include a property of the Citizen M chain (www.citizenm.com,) a Dutch company. This chain has rooms in Rotterdam and at the Charles de Gaulle Airport outside Paris starting at 79 euros, and even boasts a hotel on Times Square in New York, where rates begin at $199.

Budget hotels accounted for only 3 per cent of Scottish hotel bookings in 2000, but that percentage rose to 18 per cent by 2010 and is expected to reach 25 per cent by 2016. The newspaper article credits their growth mainly to the recessionary climate of recent years.

It is good to hear that lodging choices in Scotland are expanding. I have stayed in and eaten at some fine places in that country, but have also had the experience of sleeping in my rental car because I could not find anyplace that had rooms available. Car sleeping is not very comfortable even in one's 20s, as I was then.