IT LOOKS LIKE A SHINY BLACK ice cube. Or maybe, as its proprietor describes it, like Darth Vader's house. What's certain is that this imposing granite and smoked-glass square just off the M8 doesn't look like a hotel from the outside. On the inside, however, it's a different story.
From the foyer of Dakota Eurocentral - Glasgow's newest offering from hotel entrepreneur Ken McCulloch and his business partner, David Coulthard - the visitor is transported to a luxurious lounge upholstered in distressed leather, warm velvets and touch-me corduroy.
Part New York loft apartment, part cosy gentlemen's club, the space is both welcoming and warm - which undoubtedly helped Dakota secure the accolade of Scotland's Most Stylish Hotel at last month's Scottish Style Awards.
"Ken wanted the building to be iconic," says interior designer Amanda Rosa, McCulloch's wife and the woman responsible for the Dakota look. However, while the outside might shout "look-at-me" to those driving past, on the inside Rosa wanted this budget hotel - the second in what is set to be an international chain - to be a home from home.
Some observers have raised an eyebrow at McCulloch's plan to invest an estimated 150 million in a group of value-for-money hotels - the third of which is due to open early next year on a site near the Forth Road Bridge. A few have also questioned his choice of locations. Situated off the Eurocentral junction of the motorway between Edinburgh and Glasgow, the land on which Dakota sits is not exactly prime. However, the man who created the fashionable Malmaison chain, as well as One Devonshire Gardens in Glasgow (which he sold in 1999 and 2000 respectively), clearly knows what he's doing.
As the creative force behind the dcor of all of these ventures, Rosa proves her husband is not the only talent in the partnership. However, unlike her previous projects (the most recent of which was the Columbus Monaco - McCulloch's luxury 180-bedroom hotel situated next to their second home in the tiny principality), Dakota's look was not to be luxurious or fashionable. Instead, Rosa wanted an interior which would create an ambience rather than make a statement.
"With hip boutique hotels it can quite often become all about the design," she says. However, for a guest - and in particular the business travellers Dakota is largely catering for - she says what matters most about their stay is a comfortable bed and good food. "For many guests time spent away from home is begrudged, so with the hotel I moved away from design for design's sake and concentrated on creating a warm, comfortable, non-threatening environment to try and make a night here a bit more of a pleasure."
The real challenge was the project's tight budget. However, just as McCulloch was adamant that the word "budget" (a one-night stay at Dakota costs 89) would not mean a hotel devoid of fine dining and friendly service, Rosa was determined that it would not result in a lack of style.
In fact, Scotland's first Dakota - in common with the original hotel in Nottingham, which is the blueprint for the chain - is highly stylised. In the foyer, exposed brick walls and open fires provide the backdrop for an eclectic mix of large wooden tables, oversized sofas in muted colours and textured scatter cushions.
"I like big masculine chunky things, which are needed in a big double height room such as this," says Rosa. "Although I like playing with different fabrics, patterns and trims, I go for a solid, substantial look - that's just my style."
Then there are what Rosa calls her "oddball choices" - the giant clock above the foyer fireplace ("I have a thing about clocks at the moment, but I think it's appropriate because they're all to do with time and travel"), the silver column lamps with shades which resemble retro car headlights, and the battered travel cases held aloft on a Perspex plinth in the corner.
"I wanted to ruffle feathers by doing something unexpected," she says. "I didn't want it to look like we were trying too hard so I avoided anything too gimmicky. I also went for pieces which were slightly quirky but which do a job as well as look interesting. I hate it when you don't know what you're looking at - like the time I was in a trendy LA hotel and I was too scared to sit on something I thought was a stool but could have been a sculpture."
Combining the functional with the decorative in items such as the huge floor lamps which illuminate each seating area in the lounge saves money, but that isn't the point. Rosa insists that she loves working both to a tight deadline (Dakota was built and opened in 51 weeks) and budget. Each hotel in the chain costs around 14 million, only a small slice of which is available for her to spend.
And despite the fact that her favourite part of the room is her "little expensive corner" in which a pair of French red velvet tub chairs sit alongside a varnished tree trunk for a coffee table, that's because it's a homage to her love of French design rather than any spendaholic tendencies.
"If money is no object then it isn't a challenge for me - and it's the challenge that forces your creativity," she says. "You get a great buzz from being able to do something well that doesn't cost the earth."
As with the lounge, nothing about the 92 bedrooms feels cheap. Thanks to a wash of slate grey paint on the walls, and crisp white sheets, they are cool and calm - while touches of luxury include plasma TV screens, bespoke leather beds and leather desks. Most of these items - such as the cushions with their play on the American stars and stripes, and the chrome desk lamps - are bespoke, which makes the room feel unique rather than uniform.
While a good bed is one of the McCulloch-Rosa budget hotel dictums, so too is access to good food - which is why the bar and 80-seat grill are so different from the restaurants you find in so many other hotels in their price category. With dark wooden Venetian blinds on the windows, dark tables and an abundance of leather, the feel is intimate and moody. Yet there's also a sense of fun, with a poster-sized copy of an old Playboy cover and retro comic strips brightening up the brick walls.
It's a big room but the maze of black slatted screens cleverly divide a large soulless space and create a series of intimate seating sections, which make for relaxing dining - even if you are a businessman travelling alone. "I didn't want somewhere too precious but somewhere that you could get good, honest food served in a comfortable space," says Rosa.
And in the grill, as with the rest of the hotel, she has achieved exactly what she set out to do.
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