Copthorne Hotel Manchester, Manchester

used to live about 5 miles from this hotel and regularly visited the cinema next door which has sadly been closed. At that time - in the early 1990s - Salford Quays was going through a 'boom' and becoming the North West's answer to London's Docklands. The gentrification of the old Manchester Ship Canal docks was an inspirational example of 1990s yuppification and the Copthorne was a 'hot' property - parked as it is, right in prime position on the water side. Despite being called the Copthorne Manchester, it is of course in Salford, an entirely different city (or so the locals like to remind us).

I even considered the Copthorne as a possible wedding night venue when I got married nearly 9 years ago so, as you can imagine, at that time I held the hotel in rather high regard. As things turned out, we didn't book the hotel for our wedding because Manchester United were playing at home that day and we didn't want to share our big night with a load of drunken football supporters.

Manchester United is a big element in the Copthorne story. It's within a 5 minute walk of Old Trafford and when it was first built, it was a popular location for visiting teams and fans. More and better hotels have been built since then and the tired decor and lack of sports facilities means visiting teams tend to shy away these days - choosing places like the Marriott in Worsley instead. This hotel is now more likely to attract fans in search of a good car park or people visiting the Colgate toothpaste factory opposite.

We booked the room through an online booking site at a rate of about £69 for a Quayside room - i.e. a room overlooking the waterfront. This was a room only rate so we didn't get breakfast but parking was included United were obviously playing away that weekend as the prices double on match weekends.

This isn't the best hotel to choose for a visit to Manchester especially if you have no transport. I chose it because it's near to my friends but I wouldn't use it for a city break because it's too far from the centre of Manchester.

Finding the hotel

The hotel is tricky to find as the road system has been changed a lot since I moved south. The security barriers in the car park weren't working so there was no problem getting into the car park but it wasn't entirely reassuring to know the security was limited. This isn't the most salubrious area.

Check In

In through the main doors and the reception desk is off in front to the right hand side. The check in was fine - I'd prepaid so there wasn't much to do.

The Room

The room was on the ground floor with a pleasant view of the water and the room was of moderate size - nothing spectacular but not pokey. The furnishings were clean and functional but not in any way exceptional. Tea and coffee making facilities were provided - you can't get Brits into a hotel room without a good stock of tea bags - and there was TV with a good selection of channels although as I have only the basic terrestrial channels at home, I'm easily pleased. In front of the window was a table and some chairs but because of the ground floor location and our desire to leave the window open, we kept the table clear of any valuables - it would have been easy for someone to put their arm through the window whilst we were sleeping.The bed was a comfortable king size and the room temperature was fine.

The bathroom was very disappointing - the tiling was really tired and dated with discoloured grouting. Worst of all we had only one large towel for the two of us which takes the concept of bathing with a friend a bit too far. The towel issue turned into a bit of a saga, taking three increasingly grumpy phonecalls to the front desk plus a visit to the reception before I finally got it resolved several hours later. Hence my ratings for service are rather low.

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

As I'd prepaid I wasn't expecting any problems. However when we got to the reception there was an enormous queue. I asked the concierge if I could just leave the card key and run as I'd already paid. He said 'no' and insisted we had to queue up and wait to check out. Confession time, I threw my key-card on the desk, grabbed my bags and 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!!