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MYSTERY GUEST WE SEND A WRITER UNDER THE COVERS THIS WEEK: ABODE, BATH STREET, GLASGOW

THE 60-room ABode hotel, which opened in Glasgow in December, is from the team behind the Bath Priory and Gidleigh Park, with sister properties in Exeter and Canterbury. It is housed in a fine Edwardian building on Bath Street, and couldn't be better placed to enjoy the shopping, eating and drinking in Scotland's most vibrant city. Judging by my recent visit, however, the location is one of the better things going for the hotel while it finds its feet. The area beyond reception is fabulous, tarted up but essentially altered little since its 1911 inception as a Department of Education building, with stained-glass windows, gold lions on the wall and glazed brick. The old-style lift has an internal gate, which, if left open by guests, means it sits on a particular floor going nowhere. Rooms come in four sizes — Comfortable, Desirable, Enviable and Fabulous. I was in 215, a Comfortable, which exuded paint fumes, so I was moved (without fuss). My new Comfortable ground-floor room, 101, was a decent size, with flat-screen TV, paintings, soft bed, internet connection, airconditioning and an adequate bathroom with bespoke smellies. I didn't realise 101 was

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Sniff test: the smell of fresh paint made it hard to sleep

right above the hotel's cafe bar, where a DJ plays at weekends. I certainly did later on. I had booked dinner for myself and Glaswegian friend Karyn a month in advance at the hotel's Michael Caines fine dining restaurant, and...