Tartan Lodge, Glasgow
Tartan Lodge is a budget hostel at 235 Alexandra Parade in Dennistoun, a converted nineteenth century church and masonic lodge. In 2020 it became one of the Glasgow city centre sites into which Mears Group, the Home Office accommodation contractor for Scotland, moved around 350 asylum seekers from dispersed flats at the start of the pandemic. Roughly thirty residents were placed at Tartan Lodge from countries including Iraq, Iran, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Vietnam[1]Press.
Capacity
30
residents (peak)
Per night
£170
per resident
Annual
£1.9m
estimated
Background
In April 2020 Mears moved several hundred asylum seekers out of dispersed flats and into a cluster of city centre hotels and hostels including the Park Inn on West George Street, McLays Guest House on Renfrew Street, and Tartan Lodge in Dennistoun. The shift was made under the cover of pandemic public health guidance and was opposed by Glasgow City Council, the Scottish Refugee Council and Positive Action in Housing[3]Press.
National coverage by Express & Star in July 2020 set out charity warnings of a humanitarian crisis across the Glasgow hotel cluster, citing malnutrition, bed bugs and inadequate food at sites including Tartan Lodge[2]Press.
Conditions on site
Positive Action in Housing recorded that residents at Tartan Lodge were served slops in reused cartons for breakfast, lunch and dinner, were unable to wash their clothes other than in the showers, had no kitchen facilities, and were drinking water from taps in the toilets. Residents reported having no money at all for basics and rooms that had not been cleaned for months[1].
Residents told the charity they had initially been locked in the hotel and were afraid to speak out because Mears and the Home Office work hand in hand on their asylum cases. A press conference organised on Monday 6 July 2020 to highlight conditions on site was met by hostel staff attempting to stop residents joining[1].
Cost analysis
At the £170 per person per night Migration Observatory benchmark[4], a thirty bed hostel in continuous asylum use carries headline taxpayer exposure of around £5,100 per night. The 2020 Glasgow cluster ran for several months across multiple sites before residents were moved back to dispersed flats. The May 2025 NAO contract review confirmed that hotel use under the Mears regional contract has remained the most expensive accommodation modality in Scotland[5]NAO.
Per person per day cost stack (benchmark)
£170- Hotel rate (room + three meals)£10059%
- Weekly cash allowance£74%
- Legal aid & casework£127%
- NHS / interpreter / utilities£1911%
- Contractor / security overhead£3219%
Cost in context
Tartan Lodge (closed)
£170
closed-period benchmark
UK asylum hotel avg
£170
NAO
Glasgow budget hostel
£35
commercial
Hostel bed
£30
commercial
Timeline
Timeline
Pre-2020
Trades commercially as Tartan Lodge, a budget hostel in a converted nineteenth century church and masonic lodge
Apr 2020
Mears moves residents from dispersed flats into Glasgow hotel cluster including Tartan Lodge
6 Jul 2020
Press conference on conditions
Positive Action in Housing organises a press conference at the site; staff attempt to prevent residents joining.
Jul 2020
Express & Star covers Glasgow hotel humanitarian crisis warnings
National coverage names Tartan Lodge among the Mears city centre cluster sites.
2020-21
Glasgow hotel cluster wound down
Residents returned to dispersed accommodation across the city.
Sources
- Glasgow hotel asylum seekers update — Positive Action in Housing, Jul 2020
Documents 30 asylum seekers placed by Mears at Tartan Lodge in Dennistoun in 2020, with bed bugs, food not fit for human consumption, residents drinking water from toilet taps, and reports that residents had initially been locked in.
- Asylum seekers at centre of humanitarian crisis in Glasgow, charity warns — Express & Star, Jul 2020
National coverage of charity warnings about a humanitarian crisis across the Glasgow asylum hotel cluster, including malnutrition and bed bugs at sites including Tartan Lodge.
- Glasgow hotel asylum seekers update — Positive Action in Housing, 2020
Documents the Park Inn Glasgow stabbing of 26 June 2020 and the wider use of Glasgow city centre hotels for asylum accommodation by Mears under Home Office contract.
- Asylum accommodation in the UK — Migration Observatory, University of Oxford, Aug 2025
£170 per person per day in hotels (2024/25 average); used for per-hotel estimates and food/utilities breakdowns.
- The Home Office's asylum accommodation contracts — National Audit Office, May 2025
222 hotels in use; £1.296 billion annual (2024/25); per-hotel approximately £5.84 million.