Things to thank the world for No. 4: Buena Vista Social Club! If you haven't seen them... Do! ...
Things to thank the world for No. 4: Buena Vista Social Club! If you haven't seen them... Do!
Member since:28.03.2003
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Like a lot of people I travel regularly for work. Unlike most of them, I also work in the quasi-public-sector and feel obliged therefore to restrict the expense claims to reasonable limits. I have actually been known to stay in a Youth Hostel on a business trip - but generally I opt for what have become known as 'budget hotels' - you know the ones: Premier Inn (a.k.a. Travelinn as was), Travelodge, Innkeeper's Lodge.
These are the earthbound equivalents of budget airlines. No frills. But you do expect them to deliver on the basics.
Premier is probably my favourite of the three. Maybe that's because they've followed up their rebranding with a full-scale refurb of all their hotels. (Maybe it's because my most usual branch of the competition has particular limitations.)
The point of this long lead in is to establish that I am familiar with the chain, use it frequently, and have previously had nothing but good experiences.
From which, you'll gather: the Manchester GMEX version didn't quite cut the mustard.
BOOKING:
As always, I booked on-line. The site is www.premierinn.com and is simplicity itself.
You can search for hotels in the area you want by town, postcode, local attraction, road junction or select from the drop-down list of all hotels, or click on the map. This will give you information on the hotel, its facilities and local attractions.
"Check availability" allows you to select dates and room requirements & will offer you a booking if your requirements can be met - or will tell you which is the next nearest hotel that has availability.
Alternatively, if you know which hotel you want, you can go straight to booking.
Input the usual details, dates, number of people,
credit card details to guarantee the booking (payment will be taken on arrival) and you will instantly receive an on-screen confirmation and, hot on its heels, an e-mail back-up. If you've opted for the service you can also have your booking confirmed by SMS to your mobile phone - a handy way of being sure you'll have your booking reference with you if you need it. They will even text you on the day of arrival to ask if you want to reserve a table for dinner.
LOCATION, LOCATION:
We were in Manchester for a gig at the football ground in Old Trafford. Not being totally confident of having secured the tickets, I'd been too reticent about booking accommodation for the night and couldn't get anything (at any price) in Old Trafford itself. The next option was to aim for somewhere close to our city arrival point: Manchester Oxford Road rail station.
The GMEX Premier Inn is within walking distance. It's located on Lower Moseley Street, opposite the Midland Hotel which faces Manchester Central Station, and only about five minutes walk from Oxford Road station.
This is clearly the 'conference centre' of Manchester. The area is littered with hotels (there's another Premier even closer to the station, and a Hilton across the road, and just about everything in between); during the day it bustles; at night it shuts down. It took us quite some time to find a money machine, and we signally failed to find a late-night shop. There are, however, a number of restaurants - a couple of kebab shops and the ubiquitous McDonalds.
So far, so good.
CHECK IN.
True to form, check-in was quick and easy. A request for my surname, confirmation of part of my home address, checking the stay details. Confirmation of my nationality and a signature were taken, payment by credit card transacted and we were handed our key card.
As is the convention these days the room number was written on the inside of the card slip cover and not given verbally. (For the security conscious the chain also has a policy of trying not to locate lone females on the ground floor or at the end of corridors.)
Still looking good.
THE ROOM
You must have seen the Lenny Henry adverts. That's how the rooms are. No individuality, no charm. Just fresh, modern, clean, efficient, comfortable. To be honest, I even find something comforting about the 'recognition' factor. Travelling for fun is all about charm and adventure and discovery. When I'm travelling for work, I just want somewhere to recharge without being challenged.
This trip was for fun - but the accommodation was a necessary add-on because we couldn't hope to get home that night. We weren't planning to spend any time there.
The room was acceptably familiar. Blond wood fittings, TV, white bed linen with purple stretcher echoed in the purple-themed flower prints. Strangely inappropriate check curtains. En suite, with bath / shower.
SO WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG?
The gig was brilliant. Manchester police and transport systems were friendly and efficient in organising the outspill afterwards so that getting back into town was a little crushed on the metro, but quick, surrounded by happy people and without incident
Back in the hotel…approaching midnight…and the simplest of things are sent to try us.
Tea.
Now we are English, we do like our tea. While I can see that hotels have to maintain a balance between meeting the guests' needs whilst actually in the hotel and risking them re-stocking their own kitchens from the supplies, I do rather feel that only providing two tea-bags in a double room is a bit on the stingy side. A trip to reception in search of replenishments (we wanted tea now, and would certainly want our morning cuppa too) resulted in the receptionist struggling to produce an extra two teabags.
Kettle.
Having secured supplies…the kettle does not work.
This time I despatch the boyfriend to reception. He returns with a member of staff who verifies that indeed the kettle does not work…spends some time looking for a consumer unit which clearly is not anywhere in the room, makes a phone call, goes away, comes back with a colleague - and, in fairness, another kettle. It does not work either. Hmmm. A quick test shows that all of the power sockets are out. (As it happens so is one of the main lights, but we weren't fussed enough about that to mention it.)
Both staff wander off to see if they can find the consumer unit to re-set the trip.
After a little while (it's now getting towards 1a.m.) we get a call to say that there is clearly a problem with our room, so they will move us to another one nearby. As it happened it was only about four doors up the corridor and we didn't have that much luggage - although we had managed to spread it out a bit. Even so, decamping in the middle of the night is not ideal.
But move we did. It was a larger room, away from the lift and everything functioned properly. We made and drank our tea (even if we had to ration the sugar - also supplied in meagre quantities) and retired.
And slept the sleep of the innocent….or the exhausted…
…until the thudding started.
6.45 a.m.
THUMP…thump-thump; THUMP…thump-thump; THUMP…thump-thump; What the…?!
After the usual half-asleep ponderings over whether the builders are still at work, or whether next-door's guests are slowly packing up the furniture, we eventually realise what we're listening to. The controlled drop of lifted weights.
The first floor of the hotel is sub-let to a gym, which, we later discover, opens at 6.30am. The sound transmission is excellent. The sound-insulation is non-existent. Perhaps conference-attending businessmen are up too early in the morning to care. We cared. It was precisely the kind of irritation you get when your neighbour's car alarm goes off. Every time you think it's stopped and you're about to drift off again, up it starts: THUMP…thump-thump.
I should point out that we'd had such a good time at the gig, that we were reasonably laid back about the proceedings. The night-staff were responsive, diligent, friendly and apologetic and did everything they possibly could to resolve our problems.
The early-morning wake-up we could have lived without. I had resolved to e-mail my comments upon returning home, to test out the guarantee, but wasn't (in true English fashion) about to make a fuss.
On checking out I was asked "Was everything alright?"
"Yes, fine…apart from having to switch rooms in the middle of the night, and the awful din from the gym - at least we assume it was the gym - sometime before 7 this morning" was a response I think I managed to deliver fairly light-heartedly and without my usual degree of sarcasm. I was pleasantly surprised therefore to elicit the immediate: "Oh, I'm sorry about that. Would you like us to refund the cost of your stay?"
I was asked to provide a copy of the bill I'd been provided with on arrival, and the card I'd paid with, and the full cost was immediately credited.
Now THAT is customer service!
RECOMMENDATION?
This is the first time I've encountered any problems in a Premier (formerly Travel-) Inn and the attitude of staff in dealing with them could hardly be faulted. They did everything they could, including living up to the guarantee and refunding the charge on the spot. On that basis, I am happy to continue to recommend the chain as a whole.
The GMEX branch in particular, however, has some work to do.
Easy things include: • increasing a little the supplies of tea etc in the rooms (and ensuring that sufficient replenishments are available at reception) • ensuring that all staff know where the consumer units are - our problems with the power were probably a simple tripped switch, but with staff unable to re-set it • testing that the circuits haven't been tripped (by simply turning on the hairdryer for example) as part of the daily cleaning regime
More fundamentally, they really do need to address the sound transmission problem from the gym.
I'm not likely to use this particular branch again, anytime soon.
~
PRICE: for the record, we would have paid £91 for the double room. The standard rate quoted on the website is £66 per room Mon-Thurs, £62 at weekends. In making the reservation I was advised that "prices may be higher during events". The rate is per room, not per person.
Very good review. Whenever I had to travel and stay in a hotel I always took a jar of coffee and a bag of sugar lumps for extra as there was never enough left in the room. John
JAVER1967 23.06.2008 20:12
Excellent review
patriciat 14.06.2008 21:10
I'm impressed both by your restraint in not resorting to too much sarcasm and also on getting your money back. Pat.t x
Opposite the Manchester Central conference centre (formerly known as the G-MEX), this ... more
modern hotel offers great value, with comfortable, air-conditioned rooms and an on-site gym.The Premier Inn Manchester City Centre (GMEX) has a convenient city-centre...
Information:
Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
exceptional by (13%):
very helpful by (88%):
