Premier Apartments - Manchester, Manchester > Reviews > Apartments are the way forward!

Author's product rating:   

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

Advantages:	Central, stylish, affordable and just downright cool
Disadvantages:	You have to make your own fry - up in the morning

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I am sitting at my computer with an aching head, my hands clasped desperately round a glass of Alka Seltzer. I have just returned from a hen weekend in Manchester, and I don't think I can ever drink again.
However, through the haze of an Easter weekend full of laughs, late nights, food and drink, I think I can recall enough about this establishment to give you a decent insight in to staying in apartments in the city.

While looking for a venue for my hen's last weekend of freedom on the internet (if you have read any of my other reviews you will see the organization side of things often falls to me when it comes to hen weekends!) I came across the Premier Apartments. We had decided on Manchester as the city venue for the two nights of debauchery, but as it is only an hour's drive from where we live, we wanted something a little different than just a hotel. And am I glad we went for these. There is loads of space, they are clean, convenient and you get a huge kitchen complete with a fridge freezer, vital for keeping the pre-night out drinks cool.

LOCATION

These apartments are located about a five-minute walk from the Arndale Centre and the Printworks in the centre of Manchester. Victoria station is nearby and Picadilly station just a short taxi journey away. There is also a bus and tram station directly across the way from these apartments.
We drove in, coming across from the West and had a little bit of difficulty finding the apartments, although this could have been rectified with better directions. Basically, you head to the MEN arena and turn off just before it. They really are quite easy to find, but there were five girls in one car and three in another car, and we know how hopeless us women are at map reading. If the directions read go past the house with the fabulous curtains in the front window and then turn left at River Island, we would be fine, but tell us to head north north east down the A48583784984 and no chance!

APPEARANCE

From the outside, these apartments don't look anything special. They are grey/black brick and are about four-storeys high. The reception is located on the ground level, just off the street and is used for checking in and to report any problems. After you have checked in, you used a side access, complete with number password to enter the building, so it is all very secure,

We booked one apartment that slept four and two apartments sleeping two people. I stayed in the four-man apartment, so will describe this one to you.

You entered by way of a key card, to find yourself in a rather spacious hallway, which had a laminated floor. The first door to the left housed the iron and ironing board and a washing machine. It was also a cloakroom and was ideal for dumping shoes, coats and bags out of the way.
The second door was the kitchen/diner/front room. This was fabulous. It was all open plan, with plenty of kitchen cupboard space. There was also a fridge freezer, a microwave, a dishwasher and a kettle, as well as complimentary tea/coffee and biscuits. There were four sets of plates, mugs, cups, wine glasses etc. We held a dinner party in our apartment on the second night before hitting the town and noticed there were little things missing like a chopping board, but it didn't matter really. The whole kitchen was very well equipped.
There was also a table to sit four and a breakfast bar.

The room opened out into the lounge area. There were two two-seater sofas, two lamps, a standard lamp a coffee table, a mini hi-fi and the tv. It was a great place to sit and chill out, and was big enough to have all eight girls in before going out on the town. This area was carpeted and the kitchen tiled. There were also lovely big prints on the walls and a big mirror.

The third door was the smaller of the two double bedrooms. There was still plenty of space in this room, plenty enough for two people. There was a wardrobe in here, two bedside tables and a full-length mirror.

The second bedroom was next to this and this was slightly bigger, and had an en-suite bathroom, although there was only a shower in this one and not a bath. It did have a toilet though and a big mirror, which is important when there are four rather vain girls wanting to get ready! There was also a full-length mirror and wardrobe in this room.
Both the bedrooms were carpeted and also had some lovely prints on the wall.

The main bathroom was next to this room and had a lovely big bath, a huge mirror, a powerful shower, a toilet and a heated towel rail. It was very spacious and there was enough room for two people to stand comfortably side by side at the mirror.
There are plenty of windows in the apartments, and some of them that are facing the back have little balconies, although the floor of them is not safe for heels to be warned!

PRICE

The price was brilliant for the amount of room and services that were provided. Basically we got everything we would have done in a hotel, plus a lot extra! It worked out at about 80 quid per person for the two nights! What a bargain…you would pay at least that, if not more, in a city centre hotel. Plus this was Bank Holiday weekend, so we felt like we got a really good deal.
As a venue for a girls/lads weekend it was great. You are within walking distance of the pubs, bars, shops and restaurants of Manchester. The printworks is literally 3 minutes away. We even walked to Deansgate Locks on the second night and this only took 15 minutes!

You get everything provided, like towels and bed linen, and it makes it easier if you want to get together for a drink before you go out, as there is plenty of room for people to gather. They are like little houses rather than hotels.
And it was great to hold a dinner party for our hen before we went out on the Saturday night. It meant that we managed to eat a three-course dinner for a relatively cheap price, and were able to dress up the apartment for her, with some embarrassing old pictures of her and table confetti and candles. It enabled us to give the whole weekend a nice personal touch.

I would without a doubt recommend staying in these apartments. Obviously there are some things you don't get with these that you do with a hotel, like room service, a bar, a restaurant or breakfast in the morning. But there are plenty of nearby bars and café's to go and visit to stop it being too much of a problem. In fact, there is a great bar around the corner called Blu and they do some wonderful fruit cocktails which are great hangover cures.

Parking is quite expensive if you come by car. The apartments have their own spaces which they charge 12 quid per day for. We just parked across the road in the NCP car park for the same price.

There are about 60 apartments in the block, and most of them follow the same lay-out.
You can check out the look of the rooms by taking a virtual tour of the apartments on the website www.premierapartmentsmanchester.com

Thanks for reading