Britannia Hotel, Stockport

...friends and family, and chose Britannia Stockport Hotel as our base for the weekend. The hotel is situated on Dialstone Lane in Offerton, Stockport, and is about 5 minutes away from the M60 ringroad around Manchester. I had previously read several reviews of this hotel on other websites suggesting that the hotel was terrible – dirty rooms, poor service etc. However we decided to give it a try as it was an ideal location for us and for less than £90 ...
...I made my booking through Britannia Stockport’s own website (http://www.britanniahotels.com/hotel_home.asp?page=118&campaign=Google&kw=Stockport+Britannia). The internet booking process was a bit confusing with all the different options of room rates available, and the layout of the website was rather dated and not too pleasing on the eye. But by booking on the internet, we got a double room for just £29.75 per night. The booking was secured with ... more

My husband and I spent last weekend in Manchester visiting friends and family, and chose Britannia Stockport Hotel as our base for the weekend. The hotel is situated on Dialstone Lane in Offerton, Stockport, and is about 5 minutes away from the M60 ringroad around Manchester. I had previously read several reviews of this hotel on other websites suggesting that the hotel was terrible – dirty rooms, poor service etc. However we decided to give it a try as it was an ideal location for us and for less than £90 for three nights for both of us the price was unbeatable.

I originally found information about the hotel by searching for hotels in Stockport on www.lastminute.com, which states that the hotel is 3*, and that the “bedrooms are dated but clean and are also currently being refurbished.”

***BOOKING
I made my booking through Britannia Stockport’s own website (http://www.britanniahotels.com/hotel_home.asp?page=118&campaign=Google&kw=Stockport+Britannia). The internet booking process was a bit confusing with all the different options of room rates available, and the layout of the website was rather dated and not too pleasing on the eye. But by booking on the internet, we got a double room for just £29.75 per night. The booking was secured with my credit card details, but no payment was taken until we reached the hotel. The hotel also has a free cancellation policy right up until 4pm of the day of arrival. A confirmation email with my booking number and all the details of the hotel and our booking was sent to my email address.

***ARRIVAL
As we knew that we were going to be arriving very late into the night on the first night of our stay, we decided to telephone earlier that evening (whilst we were on our way to the hotel) to check that this would be ok. We rang the telephone number from the confirmation email I had received, however an answerphone message on that telephone number told us that the booking line was now closed, and should we need to discuss our booking please contact the hotel directly. I was quite annoyed, as that was the only telephone number supplied to me for the hotel, but it was obviously a central booking line and not the hotel’s direct number. My husband phoned directory enquiries to get the hotel’s direct number, and finally spoke to someone at the hotel, who confirmed that it would be fine to arrive late.

We arrived at the hotel at about 2am on Friday morning, after a long drive from our home in south wales. We found the hotel easily, using a Manchester A to Z. The hotel has its own car park which is free to use. We were greeted at the reception by a very quiet man who took the payment for our stay, gave us our key and pointed us in the direction of our room. We were staying on the first floor and took the lift because of our luggage.

***OUR ROOM
Our room was spacious and had a desk, double bed, two bedside cabinets, tv and small wardrobe including a trouser press and two spare pillows. The bed was comfortable but the bedding left a little to be desired – two sheets, a rather itchy blanket and a sort of thin bed cover over the top of it all (this seems to be the norm for hotels these days though). Warmth-wise the bedding was fine though.
Other items for us to use included a hairdryer, kettle, cups, teapot, and the usual sachets of tea, coffee, sugar and milk. The sachets were kept topped up every day to a level of four each (not overly generous but just about enough!). However, one morning, upon sniffing the UHT cartons provided for us, I was disgusted to find that the milk was off (although they were still within their use-by date). I was not pleased that this had not been noticed by whoever serviced our room that morning. Thankfully, though, I had kept a few portions of milk from the previous day so we could still have our morning coffee!

The ensuite bathroom had all the essentials, including a bath tub with built-in shower, and complementary toiletries. There was even a shoe polisher. The room was pretty clean, although I would not call it spotless, but it was clean to a satisfactory level. It was also very warm in the room when we first arrived, but cooled down as we left our window locked ajar for the duration of our stay. The view out of the window could not really be described as a ‘view,’ as it opened out onto a concrete section of the hotel roof. This didn’t really matter to us though as we didn’t plan to spend a lot of time gazing out of the window! The only thing that wasn’t so good about the room was the décor was rather old-fashioned (the usual hotel-typical dark, flowery patterns adorned the bedding, carpet, furniture and curtains). However everything was comfortable and that’s more important to me than the style. In general we didn’t have much problem with noise, although one night the couple in the room above us were rather noisy, and their footsteps could be heard quite clearly crossing the floor.

***LEAVING
During our last night in the hotel, I became quite ill with a stomach bug (caught off a relative – nothing to do with the hotel!), and, when morning came, I didn’t know if I would be up for the 4-hour journey back to south wales. Previously, we hadn’t bothered finding out what time we needed to check out, because we were planning to leave quite early in the morning. However by 9am it was clear I was too weak to leave any time soon. My husband went down to reception and explained the situation and asked what time we needed to check-out. Standard check-out time was 11am, but the lady on reception said that she would extend that for an hour for free. If we needed to stay beyond that then we could stay til 5pm for an extra £15. But by 5 minutes to 12 o’clock I was feeling just about well enough to leave so we checked out with no problems then. I was very glad that the hotel were flexible about the checking-out time though.

***OTHER FEATURES AND OFFERS
Free local newspapers (The Independent & Manchester Evening News) were available to guests in the reception area.

The hotel has a leisure club (“Spindles”) including a gym and pool which was refurbished in September 2006 (according to lastminute.com). However it costs an extra £5.00 per person for a health club pass which lasts for the duration of your stay, up to a week. That could be quite good value if you used it several times but we knew we would be busy so chose not to buy this extra.

Other extras you can buy are:
- Continental breakfast (£6.75 per day)
- Full English breakfast (£9.50 per day)
- Three course carvery dinner (£8.75)
- Fruit basket and bottle of mineral water in your room (£7.50 – very expensive in my opinion!)
- Welcome Champagne on ice (£17.50) – only available to online bookings

A cot is also available free of charge if requested on booking.

The website also offers “Stay and fly additional days secure car park” but states that this is only available “if booking a package which already includes either 8 or 15 days car parking.”

We chose not to buy any of the extras as it would take away from the great price we were booking it for, and personally I think all of the above are a bit dear.

The website currently boasts a complimentary bottle of wine for all bookings in July & August at selected hotels, and our booking stated that we would receive a free bottle of wine. However at the hotel no-one mentioned it and we never received it. I decided not to follow it up because we don’t drink alcohol and so would only have given it away anyway, and because I was ill when we left the hotel I wasn’t up for making a fuss. The offer states “subject to availability” so perhaps the hotel could have wriggled out of giving it to us anyway. Even so, I do not think it’s good service for it not even to be mentioned, however I can’t complain too much because I did not ask for it.

The following two offers are currently being advertised on the hotel’s website:

-Summer Saver Offer + wine: “Book a minimum 2 night stay on our internet exclusive rate and get 15 percent off the total price of your stay PLUS receive a complimentary bottle of wine per room per stay! Offer valid for arrivals from 1st July to 31st August 2007.”

-Autumn Advance Offer – “Book up to 21 days in advance for a minimum 2 night stay in September on our Internet Exclusive rate and get 10 percent off the total price of your stay! Offer valid for arrivals from 1st-30th September.”

In conclusion, I found the hotel to be satisfactory and good value for money, decorated in a comfortable (but not modern) way. The service was not brilliant, but overall I found the hotel and the service it provided to be just as good as hotels for which we had paid well over double the price per night. I would stay in this hotel again as long as the price did not increase much. All of the problems and disappointments that I encountered with this hotel would probably have been rectified had I complained about them. I would recommend this hotel for a one or two-night stopover, but only if you are looking for value not luxury! At the end of the day, you can only expect to get what you pay for! 

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