Premier Lodge, GMEX 2

Premier Travel Lodge, Manchester City Centre (GMEX)

In September this year me and my partner were traveling to Manchester for a concert at the Manchester Academy 2. But as Manchester is quite a bit away from where we live in North Derbyshire, and neither of us drive, we had to book a hotel to stay in for the night.

I have used Premier Travel Lodge and Holiday Inn's in the past and have had no real problems with them. ...
...wall. "This is a Premier Travel Inn Metro hotel. You'll find these hotels in prime locations across the UK. Metro bedrooms also include extra facilities like satellite TV, hairdryer, telephone/modem point and shower gel." We had all of the following apart from the shower gel!

Across the road was a building covered in scaffolding, and a tramline that ran past the front of the hotel. We didn't think much of it, and settled ... more

Premier Travel Lodge, Manchester City Centre (GMEX)

In September this year me and my partner were traveling to Manchester for a concert at the Manchester Academy 2. But as Manchester is quite a bit away from where we live in North Derbyshire, and neither of us drive, we had to book a hotel to stay in for the night.

I have used Premier Travel Lodge and Holiday Inn's in the past and have had no real problems with them. So we decided to book the hotel online as close to the venue as possible.

When we looked on the website we discovered that the hotel they had closest to the venue had maintenance works outside, and since this was a holiday for us, we decided that we would look for another of their hotels a little further away so we weren't rudely woken in the morning. We then found the GMEX hotel, and it seemed perfect. It wasn't that much further away from the venue, and no maintenance works near by. So we booked the hotel, and booked it so we were charged from 1pm that day unless we cancelled before, which was perfect for us as we knew it would be around that time that we would arrive in Manchester. It cost us £55.95 for a night and the pricing for a double room is as follows:

Monday - Thursday
£55.95 per room per night

Friday - Sunday
£55.95 per room per night

I have also in previous Travel Lodges, stayed in a family room, where there was a double bed as well as a sofa that turned into another 2 single beds, or in one case the sofa turned into a double bed. But this time it was just a double room we stayed in.

It was a little difficult to find from memory of the map, but we were traveling by foot from Manchester Piccadilly train station. I don't know how good or bad it is for parking your car but from their website they say "50% discount with NCP Great Northern car park situated behind the GMEX centre Off Watson Street.".

Once we were there, there was a queue of people waiting to confirm their arrival. There were 3 members of staff behind the counter, but only 2 were dealing with the queue, the other was on the telephone. Even then, the 2nd member of staff disappeared off before we were seen to. Also, the lobby was a very awkward shape so it was very difficult to get to the counter in the first place.

We were given a card for getting into our room and told the floor and room number, and headed for the lift (which makes the hotel accessible for disabled visitors). The lifts were ok, though during our stay we only ever used one out of the three, so I don't know whether they were working or not or if it was just a coincidence. Once on the floor you needed the card to get into the hallway that your room was on. It was easy enough, but the actual room door was a little more confusing and took a couple of attempts to open. Similarly with closing it, we couldn't tell if it was locked once we were in, and one of us had to close the other out to see if it had locked.

Once we had established how to close the door so people couldn't get in to steal our valuables, we found a basic Travel Inn room. If you have stayed in a Travel Lodge or Holiday Inn before you will recognize the basic set up. Double bed, tacky paintings framed on the walls, an en suite shower room/toilet, television/radio/alarm, a couple of chairs, 2 bedside cabinets and a wardrobe to hang your clothes up in without doors. There were also cupboard doors above the wardrobe with extra blankets and pillows. The one thing I found different were the huge windows that took up one wall. "This is a Premier Travel Inn Metro hotel. You'll find these hotels in prime locations across the UK. Metro bedrooms also include extra facilities like satellite TV, hairdryer, telephone/modem point and shower gel." We had all of the following apart from the shower gel!

Across the road was a building covered in scaffolding, and a tramline that ran past the front of the hotel. We didn't think much of it, and settled down to watch some TV before we headed off for our evening out. Also in the room you have a small kettle, 2 cups, 2 tea bags, 2 coffees, 2 white and 2 brown sugar sachets and 4 little UHT milks, and 2 biscuits. There was also a menu for the restaurant ("Conveniently located inside your chosen Premier Travel Inn, this restaurant is the perfect solution whether it's a drink in the bar or a relaxing evening meal. With a wide selection of quality dishes at value for money prices, and the warm and welcoming feel of a traditional pub."), which we didn't visit due to the prices, but they serve meals from breakfast ("Choose whatever takes your fancy from the full breakfast selection for only £6.95. Or, if you want a lighter option, go for the continental buffet at just £5.25.") to your evening meal. You can also order a pizza to your room before 10pm I remember reading somewhere. And there was a form to fill in about your stay and do's and don'ts like "do not smoke in your room", "make sure your room is locked" etc.

We left our room around 4pm so we could get some food before we went to the show, and found a nice Pizza Hut in-between the hotel and the venue. As it was a really hot day, we closed the curtains to reduce the heat for when we arrived back. We didn't arrive back into the hotel until around 12/1am to find that someone had been into our room who had opened the curtains and opened a window. We were horrified! Though nothing had been taken, someone had came into our room without our permission which made us very uncomfortable. Now I understand that maid's come into the room to make up the beds and change the towels etc, but we had only arrived earlier in the afternoon, so there was no need for anyone to come into the room! Not only that but when we tried to close the window, we couldn't do it. It was high up, and it didn't want to shift. Being in the middle of town with the window open meant we could hear the traffic that was still going up and down the roads, but we didn't think too much too it at that point, and we were exhausted and really didn't want to have to mess around finding someone at that time in the morning to close our window.

Due to my partner being ill in the middle of the night, we didn't get a lot of sleep, and thought we would have a lie in, and set an alarm for 10am. We didn't have to leave the room until 12, so we though we would take advantage of this. But alas this didn't go to plan.

At 6am the trams started up. Every time they started from the stop they let of a little ring. The stop was outside our window, so the bell kept waking us up. Not only that but the next thing we heard were workmen on the scaffolding across the road at 8am!!! Why hadn't we been warned about this? The other Travel Lodge had put on the website about the local maintenance happening there, but the GMEX had failed to warn us about this. Now maybe if the window had been closed we would have heard less of the noise, and why the window was opened I don't know because there was a room temperature control on the wall. So much for our lie in! The other thing that annoyed me was that the works were directly opposite our window. If we hadn't realized and had the windows opened whilst lounging around, any of the workmen could have seen in.

We packed up our stuff, but we kept the curtains closed until just before we were leaving. I didn't feel at all comfortable with people looking in. If I wanted to be in a goldfish bowl I would have applied to Big Brother! We filled in the form complaining about the window being opened without our permission and how we hadn't been warned about the works across the road, and ticked a box saying we would happily do surveys for them in future.

I received the survey from them 2 days ago which we promptly filled in and sent back. We discovered that we really should have contacted someone about the window. If it hadn't been done after we had told them, or if we were unhappy we could have got our money back. Maybe I need to read terms and conditions a little more carefully in future as I do not recall ever reading that. But I will keep that in mind for when we next visit a Travel Lodge.

Will I be using them again? Well this was the first problem I had had with them, and I have used them a lot in the past, so yes I will be using them again, but this time I will keep in mind that if we have problems with anything to complain to a member of staff.

We did walk past the other Travel Lodge after we left to go shopping around Manchester before heading home, and they did have roadworks outside their building which were very noisy, but though it may have been slightly noisier than our hotel, I still feel we were badly let down in not being notified of the scaffolding and works across from our hotel. But it was definitely the person coming into our room without permission that annoyed me the most. I will make sure I put the "do not disturb" note on the door next time too! 

...less