Back in June I was in Manchester to attend the Ciao meet up organised by Dempsey. As I was travelling from the South Coast I was going to need a place to stay for the night and having not visited the city for fourteen years was unsure as to where best it would be to go. I wasn't after anything luxurious, just somewhere clean, comfortable and central while not being too expensive.

I was intrigued by the description given of this place. It was described as being central, having thirty-two rooms and listing such amenities as cable/satellite TV, coffee/tea maker and designer toiletries. The price they wanted for a single room for the night was £55, room only. I was impressed. This sounded like just the place I was looking for. However, before I confirmed my booking I thought I'd take a look at the overall travellers rating summary. It rated the following scores out of 5:

This score was as bad as any hotel could possibly get. However, only one person had actually bothered to rate the place, a person described by Expedia as "A traveller from Los Angeles" who "does not recommend this hotel". This was the understatement of the decade. The traveller from LA had qualified his ratings by stating that this hotel had "small, noisy rooms with rickety and hard beds, showers with mould between the grout, bad water pressure, worn down carpets, stained carpeting in the hallway and surly service". The traveller added his opinion that the hotel didn't deserve to be in business.

Come the day of the meet up. I arrived at Piccadilly station in Manchester and with the aid of a map made my way on foot to the hotel, which I found within ten minutes. When the Mitre described itself as being central they weren't kidding. I found it in a pedestrianised area plum next door to the cathedral within two minutes of the shopping centre, Victoria station and Deansgate, one of Manchester's main streets.
It's location could not have suited my needs better. As I had suspected the Mitre was also a pub, surprisingly small and filled with locals though giving off a good atmosphere. In addition, around the other side of the building was the Mitre Café Bar, which as it was midday was busy serving meals and drinks. I walked through the bar to the unmanned reception. I was quickly spotted by one of the busy bar staff who immediately treated me as her priority customer. She told me that my room would not be ready until after 2 o'clock, despite the internet info telling me that rooms were available from midday. She relented after I told her that I only wanted to drop off my rucksack prior to going out again and after giving me the key told me not to worry if the room hadn't been cleaned out.

I didn't have time for further inspection as I was straight out of the door again for the meet up, but when I returned around 8 o'clock that evening I had more time to give the room a more thorough going over. I was not impressed. The room was certainly clean but the toilet/shower was a different story. As with the LA traveller there was mould in the grouting while the showerhead kept falling out of the wall bracket, forcing me to hold it while I showered. In addition, I found that the water pressure was indeed poor, perhaps not dribbling out but certainly not the refreshing jet that refreshes and cleans after a long hot day. The toilet was most curious. The seat itself was normal but the waste contraption below was a strange machine that gurgled and rumbled every time I flushed, and did not seem to be up to the job of clearing away one's human waste.

None of this mattered too much due to the fact I was very tired after having worked a night shift the previous night so I was soon in bed and, I have to say, slept soundly through the night.

I made my way down to reception with the intention of checking out and reporting the faulty toilet. A young lady who seemed to be very busy doing nothing manned it. However, she was disinterested, monosyllabic, and frankly rude. The only time she made eye contact was to briefly look at me incredulously when I asked her whether the £55 I had paid included breakfast, curtly telling me it was not. It was then I decided to say nothing about the toilet and left.
So, what was my overall opinion of the Mitre Hotel in Manchester?

Now the negatives. I wouldn't have minded the room having an old TV if the hotel had not advertised on Expedia that every room had cable TV. The only cable my one had was the one with an electric power plug at the end of it. The shower was poor, broken and the grouting dirty with mould while the toilet flushing system was frankly not up to the job. My biggest gripe was with the lazy rude girl manning reception on the Sunday morning. The LA tourist, when describing the surly service, must surely have been referring to her.