The Britannia Hotel (actual name) is one of five from the Britannia Chain in the Manchester area, and one of two in the City Centre, the chain appears to be expanding all the time.
Most of the company's hotels are in the North and Midlands, although they do have venues in Brighton, Gatwick ... Read review
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Advantages: Very convenient and good prices Disadvantages: No parking facilities, lack of real air and light in budget rooms
The Britannia Hotel (actual name) is one of five from the Britannia Chain in the Manchester area, and one of two in the City Centre, the chain appears to be expanding all the time.
Most of the company's hotels are in the North and Midlands, although they do have venues in Brighton, Gatwick and London.
THE BRITANNIA
It is located in Portland Street opposite Jarvis Piccadilly Hotel, and walking distance from ... ...use the facilities at the Britannia Sachas hotel a short walk away, although unlike most other major chains, these facilities are not complementary to paying guests.
A WORD OF ADVICE:
The hotel does offer very good standby rates if you just turn up, but don't try this when United are playing at home, or there is some big event in the areas as you will not get a room, in fact, from talking to the receptionists, you will be lucky ... more
The Britannia Hotel (actual name) is one of five from the Britannia Chain in the Manchester area, and one of two in the City Centre, the chain appears to be expanding all the time.
Most of the company's hotels are in the North and Midlands, although they do have venues in Brighton, Gatwick and London.
THE BRITANNIA It is located in Portland Street opposite Jarvis Piccadilly Hotel, and walking distance from G-Mex, the Arndale Centre, Granada TV studios and Piccadilly Square (where all the trams meet) and has 363 bedrooms, including, singles, doubles and family suites.
There are a number of good bars (including Yates and Wetherspoons) and restaurants (chose from Indian, Chinese, Thai and Italian) within a few minutes walk.
The hotel has a couple of restaurants including Bar-Roque which offers meals starting from £5 for a main course and a Pizzeria, a few bars and a disco, and is lit up rather brightly at night, more reminiscent of what I would expect Blackpool to look like, rather than a hotel in the centre of Manchester. The bars and restaurants at the hotel do seem to vary their opening hours very sporadically, so don't be surprised if any or all of them are shut during a visit. The main bar near reception has a wide variety of whiskies, but does not sell Jack Daniels, much to the amazement of some fellow visitors. Draught Lagers on offer are Fosters and Kronenbourg.
The entrance hall is very grand with large stairways and chandaliers almost the size of my living room, it is painted in blue and gold, and has a rather 'indian' restaurant type feel to it throughout.
THE ROOMS I am now coming to the conclusion that in most cases, you've seen one hotel room, you've seen them all.
EXECUTIVE DOUBLE ROOM En-suite (bath & power shower. toilet, sink & lots of freebies and towels), with high windows, (not a lot of real light), a desk area, lots of lamps, a settee, telephone, hairdryer, colour TV (including Sky News), trouser press (well hidden in the wardrobe). Complimentary newspapers are provided, but don't expect them delivered outside your door. The temperatures were very high both in the rooms and throughout the hotel, and I was advised by the receptionist that this is quite usual.
BUDGET ROOM If you have the misfortune to stay on the 5th floor of this hotel (budget single/double rooms), you do not get a window, you get a skylight in an alcove (I didn't believe this until I saw it last night), so no natural air or light, although I guess if you are travelling on business you are only going to sleep there. Also the TV reception up there is chronic. You also don't get a settee, you get a rocking chair. (This room was cold)
The hotel doesn't provide irons in the rooms, but does have an ironing room situated on the 3rd floor.
BREAKFAST Self-service basis, including fruit juice, fresh fruits in juices, croissants and cereals.
Cooked food included,
scrambled egg,
fried egg,
normal sausages,
seasoned sausages,
fried bread,
Hash Browns (with Onion),
bacon,
black pudding,
mushrooms,
beans,
tomatoes and
CHIPS!
Coffee/tea and toast in abundance.
RATES Rates vary according to demand and day.
The Rack rate for double room is £93, but best bet is to book over the internet which should offer the best rates, but if you are attending a conference here it may be worth checking with the hotel to see if a special rate has been negotiated. It might also be worth checking wotif.com for longer stays.
PRICE I paid £62 for B&B in an executive double room B&B for a Sunday night and £50 for a budget double room B&B on a Wednesday night. (There are many other hotels in this area offering similar prices even mid-week, providing Man U are not playing at Old Trafford).
ACCOUNTS The company does operate company accounts on a credit basis, but you have to spend a set amount within their chain before they will provide this service (I don't know what the rate is yet as no-one followed up my enquiry).PAYMENT Payment can be made through cash or credit card, but if using the latter, be prepared to sign for pre-authorisation (something I have never encountered before on my travels).
Corporate credit cards cannot be used without pre-authorisation through their pre-set system, or otherwise must have the signatory present.
PARKING There is no parking available at the hotel, and thus you must use the NCP car-parks located close by, the hotel do not negotiate any special rates, and it cost us £14.50 for 24 hours. You will find however staying in this area, that with the exception of the Jarvis Picadilly which has limited parking, that most of the hotels have no parking.
LEISURE FACILITIES There are no facilities available at this hotel, although guests may use the facilities at the Britannia Sachas hotel a short walk away, although unlike most other major chains, these facilities are not complementary to paying guests.
A WORD OF ADVICE: The hotel does offer very good standby rates if you just turn up, but don't try this when United are playing at home, or there is some big event in the areas as you will not get a room, in fact, from talking to the receptionists, you will be lucky to get a room anywhere in the Manchester area unless you are sensible to book beforehand.
SUMMARY A nice hotel in a convenient location, although nothing out of the ordinary.
CONTACT DETAILS The Britannia Hotel Portland Street Manchester M1 3LA Tel : 0161 228 2288 Fax : 0161 236 9154
Advantages: Cheap! Central Location. Disadvantages: Soft Pillows, dirty bathroom.
expensive. So, it was time for some shopping around?
Doing a load of searching and whatnot on Google, I stumbled upon this, the Britannia Hotel. Located down New Street, Birmingham, and at just £35 per night as the advanced fee ? it was a bargain.
Finding The Hotel
Being pretty poor at most sort of planning, I didn?t really take much note of exactly where the Hotel was, just that it was somewhere down New Street. So, it actually took us a bit of finding, but that was mainly due to us not knowing Birmingham at all. All I remember now, is it is next to Primark, so that?s that.
The Room
We had room 225, located right at the end of the maze-like corridor, on floor two. Opening the door, the room was pretty much how we expected it to be ? as basic as humanly possible. Two Beds, sat next to each other, with a tiny set of drawers to ...
Advantages: newly refurbed room, brilliant bath and shower, price Disadvantages: some areas still quite tatty
Well my second weekend in Brumopolis passed with little excitement, which was something of a relief.
The hotel on this occasion was booked through laterooms.com (see previous review) and was the Britannia in the city centre, it cost me £47 for a double room bed only, a friend also staying the same night paid £42 for a single.
Arriving at the train station my previous visits 'beer compass' directions sent me for a walk around the outside of the train station but from the exit through the shopping centre it is literally a walk of a minute at most (note to self shoving through groups of football fans is a bad idea). But for a city centre hotel you cant get much more central than this one.
The hotel itself has the entry through Union Passage just off the main street. The revolving door is quite heavy but there is a wider ...
Advantages: Close To Manchester Airport, Current Staff Are Very Good Disadvantages: Tatty, Dirty, Smelly, Terrible Food, Awful Drinks
Having stayed at The Britannia Country House Hotel, about a mile up the road from this one, I would not have chosen to stay at another Britannia Hotel if my life depended on it, however we were working here and had to stick it out for a couple of nights in October. I have to admit I was expecting the worst.
First Impressions
As you approach the hotel you are me with one of the worst looking hotels you have ever set eyes on. I am not exaggerating, this hotel really is an eyesore, it is simply a huge mass of pebble dashed concrete, and resembles a block of ugly high rise flats, it is also about 100 meters from the M56, which is handy for getting to the airport amongst other things, but also adds to the eyesore and, obvously, noise factor. It has a multi storey car park to the left of it and an open air car park to the rear ...
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