Jury´s Inn (Manchester)

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money
Quality of Rooms
Standard of Service
Quality of Facilities

Advantages:	RIGHT NEAR ALL AMENITIES, CLEAN ROOMS
Disadvantages:	THEY ONCE TOOK TWO LOTS OF MONEY FROM ME

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I just love doing things spur of the moment, and last night was one of those nights. I was sat reading someones op about about Top Ten Rock songs and it transported me back to a good few years ago when I loved listening to most of these songs. That did it, I was bored and wanted to hit the Big City of Manchester.
Here is where Jillys/Rockworld is, a combination of music all in one nightclub. Of course it mostly plays Rock,Goth and Indie Music, but I was dying to get the leather gear out and let my short hair down..

As Manchester is over 55 mins away from our house and hubbie would like a drink please, we opted to stay overnight at a hotel. Immediately Jurys Inn sprang to mind as we had stayed there on New years Eve this year, that was another last minute. (I had booked it over the phone at 7pm the same night). This time I felt brave and found on their website they were offering a Double Room with Single Bed too for £45 a night, New Years Eve we had paid £99.
I booked it quickly at 6.30 pm and I waited for the confirmation email to arrive. It did straightaway, but when it got to 7pm I panicked and thought of ringing the hotel up just to make sure it was ok. I'm as daft as a brush sometimes for booking things online, then what do I do, I ring them up just to make sure they have my order etc, which I might as well just phone up to start with. This time though it was a good job, as the receptionist called Jazz, said it would take two days to come through, and that it was better to phone up if it was a same day booking. Luckily for us, the room was available and she took my details again, asking me four times how to spell Metcalfe my surname. We get Medcalfe, Metcalf without an E, and god knows what else. Good job I haven't a complicated name then.
She asked for my Debit card details as so they could hold the room and I told her that we would be arriving at 9pm onwards.

Eventually we got there at 10.10 better late than never, but it didn't matter as the nightclub was open 9/7am so we had plenty of time.
The hotel is situated on Great Bridgewater St just past Mcdonalds and near the GMEX Centre. We had to park our car at the NCP Car park across the road, leaving it over night would cost us £6.50 after they had stamped it, I think it normally would cost £8.00.
The hotel subsidised it as they didn't have an onsite car park, but not too worry as the offsite one is only two mins away.
Approaching the hotel you pass a few pubs and then Jurys is sat there in a rather quiet area, even New years Eve it seemed quiet. The building is nothing special but neither does it look rough and battered. It has the normal glass fronted doors to the entrance and then the reception area is just to the right as you walk in.

On checking in we were greeted with two people behind the reception who asked our surname and found us on the pc. One of them took an imprint of my debit card and I was getting a bit worried as I had given them the details over the internet, then over the phone, then again when I had arrived. I asked them if I had paid three times and they said I hadn't. They said the one over the internet was their own site and it was only to secure the room. The strange thing was on New years Eve, they took two lots off me then x 2 lots of £99 as one memeber of staff forgot to cancel the one on hold.
They assured me this wouldn't happen again.

The reception area is nice and clean looking, with Marble tiles done in Oranges/Brown, there were a few comfy chairs and I think a settee or two. I never take that much notice of receptions and get a good old nosey as we only tend to stop overnight and the minute we have checked in, then it's off to the pub. What I do notice about receptions though are the simple things like first impressions, and if the reception is tatty then I think the rest of the hotel might be and that would put me off. This time the reception was fine and I felt happy.
There are three lifts in the reception area which when we came in at 2.30 this morning, (no we didn't stay until 7am), the middle one wasn't working. The recptionist noticed it not working , then promptly reported it to maintenance.
To the left of the lifts are some winding stairs down to their very own pub. Now we have only been in once and that was New Years Eve, but what impressed me was the fact that it looked like a pub, not just some Hotel Bar. It had wooden tables and stone floors, with a TV on just in case you wanted to watch the latest on Sadaam Husseins, ehem.
We bought two drinks, a glass of wine and a beer and I think it cost £7.00, quite expensive I would say. hence to say we didn't stay long, not at those prices. Seeing as though it closed at 1am, we couldn't afford to stay until the end.

Along the corridor from there was the restaurant where breakfast cost £8.50 for full english breakfast and £6.50 for continental. The first time we went there we never even entered the restaurant as we had missed time slot for breakfast, which I think is between 7-10 am. Today we thought we would treat ourselves and entered the restaurant only to be faced with a rather long queue for the english breakfast. To be honest we couldn't be bothered waiting, I would rather have someone serve me as waitress service, as I always feel like a glutton grabbing whatever off the free for all buffet. We left after queing for only 3 mins, there was more and people coming through the doors and I do prefer things a bit quieter at this early time in the morning.

Our room consisted of a Double bed which David's feet always stick out over the end as he's 6ft, a single bed and a dressing table with hairdryer in the drawer, a bench to sit on, we put our clothes on instead, and a kettle and coffee/tea etc. The wardrobe was open plan which was really just an area to hang your clothes along with a couple of hangers. The bathroom has a bath with shower over, a loo and a basin. There were no freebies i.e shampoos to nick as they had firmly attatched Lux and a Dove bodywash to the walls. I found the Dove quite hard to squeeze, so that wouldn't have been any good if I could have unscrewed it from the wall.
The bathroom was basic but spotlessly clean, no sign of wear and tear, just very hygenic looking and user friendly. Not complicated gadgets, just hot and cold water, a loo roll or two and towels.

The one thing I did notice when I walked through the door was how cold it was. Probably the maids turn up the air conditioning up to full blast making it seem like winter. That was soon sorted when i changed the setting to 29 degrees, I like to be warm you know.
Seeing as though we only stayed overnight and it was all a quick rush, I never even fiddled around with the TV, which was a 14" portable size perched at the end of the dressing table. So sorry couldn't tell you what channels there were, I think I spotted a few Sky Channels though and of course the usual War Channel was on when we we entered, a bit different from announcing Mrs Metcalfe as we entered the room. I turned that off as I had had enough of the moustached one and wanted the night to start happy not depressing.

* A BIT ABOUT THE HOTEL*

There are 265 rooms, some are smoking and some are non as we always request. We were on the second floor, I think it went up to 5 floors but don't quote me there.
All the rooms are air conditioned which you can control with a panel on the wall. You can make the room warm or cool depending on how you feel.
Theres a 24 hour news channel which is proably what was on as we entered the room.There was a modem line for all you business people out there, or those of you wanting to do an op whilst in the room. They have rooms for the disabled, I noticed that there were just a couple of steps on the way in, but didn't notice if there was a ramp for wheelchair users. I promise the next time I go back, i will look.
The restaurant is called Arches where they serve food for breakfast and evening. I saw a menu in the room, but didn't bother looking too much into it.
There is laundry and dry cleaning facilites where you leave your stuff in a bag then it gets delivered back the same day.
It's in a handy location, 3 mins walk to the G-MEX Centre, 5 mins in the car to the Trafford centre, took us 15 mins as we got lost.
There are shops and restaurants, nightclubs just round the corner about a 5 minute walk depending where you want to start. There were a couple of pubs next door, but we didn't bother, can't do with these fancy wine bars, so we headed off to the local Rock bar and could just be ourselves.
Not too sure about childcare facilites and never ate the food so the bottom comments aren't exactly correct.

If you want to view the hotel just click on www.jurys.com and there you will see a couple of photos, you can also check availabilty, but one word of warning, if booking within two days or so, I would phone them instead.
As we were checking out and paid £45 for the whole room, a young man tried to book in and the price was £99 and I thought that was just new years prices. That must be the Saturday night price.

Jurys Inn *** (Three Star)

56 Great Bridgewater St
Manchester
M1 5LE

Tel no 0161 953 8888.

I would recommend this place, no fuss, no poshness, but very clean, nice staff, and clean rooms. Prices start at £45 a night.

THIS OP IS DEDICATED TO CIAO'S OWN TICKLY AS I READ HER OP ON ROCK MUSIC AND IT'S ALL HER FAULT IN A NICE WAY THAT I DECIDED TO SPEND WHAT MONEY I HAD LEFT IN THE WHOLE WORLD ON A NIGHT OUT IN MANCHESTER.