Taking Network Rail's disused property stock and turning it into a smart but budget-friendly hotel beside a city station sounds like such a winning idea (once you've sorted the soundproofing) that you wonder why nobody has done it before. But, of course, they have. Ex-lawyer Barrie Munn founded the Sleeperz hotel (sleeperz.com) in Cambridge 15 years ago and, though Munn is no longer involved with it, the idea stuck. In partnership with Network Rail, Munn is now the man behind a new Glasgow hotel, Grasshoppers.
A modern, unpretentious take on railway hospitality, this 30-room venture covers the sixth (top) floor of a building directly adjacent to Central Station, above the unpromisingly scruffy entrance lobby of the local offices of Virgin and ScotRail. Step out of the lift up above, however, and all is clean, serene and Scandinavian, a vision of contemporary pale grey and white styling with a rainbow-striped carpet leading you down the centre of an oak-floored corridor.
Off it are dove grey, mustard and white bedrooms that each spin a variation on the pared-down theme. All feature modern Italian lighting, Caledonian oak floors and bathroom "pods" fitted beneath ash pelmets, which mimic the building's original cornicing. This may sound like an architectural pick and mix custom-built for insomnia, but the result is surprisingly sleek and restful.
The rooms are refreshingly no-frills, and the basics are done brilliantly. The sheets are Egyptian cotton, showers are powerful and rooms come with bespoke desks, pretty handmade wallpapers by MissPrint (missprint.co.uk), free Wi-Fi and Sky HD.
There's heritage at play here as well as modernity. The building was designed in 1905, by James Miller for the Caledonian Railway Company and bedrooms look out over either the rooftops of Union Street or Central Station's glass roof, whose many thousands of panes glow at night like a Brobdingnagian firefly. Which, in a tenuous way, brings us to the hotel's name. It may sound more like a backpacker hostel on the Khaosan Road than a smart Scottish hotel but Munn apparently liked its memorability.
Back on that corridor, The Kitchen is the setting for simple but very good breakfasts of muesli, fruit juice, bacon, cooked-to-order eggs and delicious, toast-your-own bread. Since December the hotel has also started offering pre-bookable suppers (Mon-Thurs nights only) of no-fuss favourites such as fish pie, steak and cranachan.
It's been a long time since I've liked a hotel this much, probably because it's not trying to offer anything other than a straightforward, decent place to stay for the night. If they dropped the gimmicky name, it would be perfect.
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