Copthorne Hotel Manchester, Manchester

I used to live about 5 miles from this hotel and regularly visited the cinema next door which has sadly been closed. I considered it as a possible wedding night venue when I got married 8 years ago so at that time I would have rated it quite highly. We didn't stay there because there was a Man U home game that day and the place was full so I went back with a sense of expectations.

The location is within crawling distance of Old Trafford. ...
...clientelle I believe but these days the tired decor and lack of gym mean the away teams are more likely to be out at the Worsely Marriott or another higher standard hotel.

Firstly I should set the scene with some background info. I booked the room through Lastminute.com and got a great rate of about £69 for a Quayside room. It was a room only rate. Man U were obviously away that weekend as the price doubles on match weekends. This ... more

I used to live about 5 miles from this hotel and regularly visited the cinema next door which has sadly been closed. I considered it as a possible wedding night venue when I got married 8 years ago so at that time I would have rated it quite highly. We didn't stay there because there was a Man U home game that day and the place was full so I went back with a sense of expectations.

The location is within crawling distance of Old Trafford. In its early days it got a good visiting team clientelle I believe but these days the tired decor and lack of gym mean the away teams are more likely to be out at the Worsely Marriott or another higher standard hotel.

Firstly I should set the scene with some background info. I booked the room through Lastminute.com and got a great rate of about £69 for a Quayside room. It was a room only rate. Man U were obviously away that weekend as the price doubles on match weekends. This isn't a hotel to choose for a visit to Manchester - I use it because it's near my friends but I wouldn't use it for a city break.

The hotel is tricky to find as the road system has been changed a lot since I moved south. The security barriers don't work so no problem getting into the car park - but not entirely reassuring. This isn't the most salubrious area.

The check in was fine - I'd prepaid so there wasn't much to it. The room was on the Quayside with a pleasant view and the room was of moderate size. The furnishing was clean but not in any way exceptional. Tea and coffee, TV with cable - all as you'd expect. The bathroom was very disappointing - really tired and dated. We had only one large towel for the two of us.

The towel issue turned into a bit of a saga - three phonecalls and a visit to the front desk to get it resolved.

Bed was comfortable and room temperature was fine.

On to the rest of the hotel. Either my standards have gone up or theirs have gone down. I used to think it was something special but now it just looks like any other dull chain hotel.

Check-out - not great. Enormous queue. I asked the concierge could I just leave the card key and run as I'd prepaid. He said no and insisted we had to queue up and wait to check out. OK, confession time, I flounced off in a huff like a real footballer's wife - that's the only thing about the weekend that came into that lifestyle category!! 

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