Premier Travel Inn Manchester - Trafford Centre - South, Manchester

Author's product rating:   

Advantages:	Clean, top location for shopping, reasonably priced
Disadvantages:	a pain to get to on a saturday afternoon, thin walls

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Being of the age where it seems everyone and I mean everyone is getting married around you. I have been to more weddings than I care to mention this year. With these weddings there has been stag do's, taking in such cultural hotspots as Amsterdam, Cardiff, Newcastle and Brno (Czech Republic). All these places chosen for their museums, architecture, and many art galleries on offer. Lumped inbetween Cardiff and Amsterdam was a one night extravaganza in Manchester, not my choice of destination and obviously for legal reasons and for fear of breaking the unwritten Omerta of "what happens on the stag stays on the stag, I cannot divulge any possible events on the stag, but having sought written permission from the groom-to-be and the best man I am able to share with you a review of the hotel I stayed in….. The Premier Inn Trafford Centre Manchester South.

Regrettably and with the wonderful benefit of hindsight, I would not have it left to the day of the stag to book a hotel room. Unable to book the Premier Inn City Centre G-Mex hotel where the majority of the party was staying, I hurriedly booked what I thought was a nearby Premier Inn but turned out to be a good 5 miles west of the city centre and in fact perched a stones throw away from the Trafford Centre. A very impressive and comprehensive shopping centre which I was forced to visit briefly as I did not bring the right shoes…apparently!

Booking

I booked this hotel via phone. Telephone number 08701 977 307. Normally if time is permitting I would go through Premier Inn's website. I choose Premier Inn because on short functional trips where costs need to be kept down and convenience kept high, I like the 'know what you get' feel about a premier inn. The prices always reasonable and the rooms always clean and comfortable and the Trafford Centre Premier Inn was no different. Booking was easy and credit card details given over the phone in order to ensure reservation.

Cost

The cost of the twin room for one Saturday night was £58 with no breakfast included. Breakfast costs were £7.50 for the full English eat as much as you're conscious would allow sort. For those feeling all continental, with their sweater around their necks, there was a continental breakfast buffet at £5.25.

Getting there

The hotel is just off Junction 10 of the M60. This is the main junction for the Trafford Centre and the result of which it was a bloomin' nightmare coming off at the junction taking a good twenty minutes to go half a mile.. all the while with the hotel in sight. It was very frustrating and readers be advised Saturdays and Sundays can be very busy indeed for traffic in the area. The hotel has sufficient parking and there were spaces available even at this peak time.

Location

The location of the hotel makes the hotel. For those intending to boost the ailing economy and spend your hard earned monies in the Trafford Centre you would love this hotel. A mere 5 mins walk and 2 minute drive you are dangerously close to around 300 shops and 25 restaraunts. A canal has been built to service the main canals of Manchester but sunset over Venice this is not. The area is very industrial and is dominated by the shopping centre, but you are only 5 miles from the city centre and £8 in a cab.
There is a Brewers Fayre bang next door for food and a petrol station a 2 minute walk away for other essentials.

Rooms

Assuringly enough the rooms were as i expected. Light comfortable and clean. Spacious enough in this day and age of modern hotels where space is at a premium but i wouldnt recommend trying to swing a cat in the room, primarily because there was not enough room and secondly that the RSPCA can get funny about these things. There was wi-fi available and a selection of pay-per-tv channels. Sadly i never got round to ordering Honey I Blew The Kids, or Star Whores but maybe for another review another time.
The beds were clean and comfortable, and the pillows soft and plentiful. The curtains blackled out the light and the windows kept the noise of the M60 outside indead of in.
My only complaint leveled against the room is a pretty standard complaint against most modern hotels... the walls are too thin. Modern buildings do suffer from this and the Premier Inn Trafford Centre is no exception. And boy was this cursed at 6 in the morning trying to sleep in the room next to the worlds loudest snorer.

Staff

Whilst trying to avoid the usual 'the staff are very freindly' line... they were!. The lady behind the desk ordered a taxi for me and was generally very amiable and polite. The cleaning ladies in the morning were it seemed not from round these parts but they done a good job in cleaning and were happy to let me take as many shower gels as i can stuff into my pockets from their trolleys.

Breakfast

Due to Mr SnoreMan in the room next door, sleep wasnt a premium and thus managed to miss breakfast. Therefore a review on the Full English is not available but generally the standard of food at the Premier Inn chain isnt too bad at all with a buffet system (i call it eat as much as you can) in operation.

Summary

The Trafford Centre Premier Inn is a good, clean unspectacular hotel. Superb for shopping, good road links and only 5 miles from all the action of Manchester City Centre, The hotel is clean, comfy and reasonably priced and if you are looking for something functional and characterless for shopping out of the city centre then look no further than the Premier Inn Trafford Centre Manchester South.

This has been proof -read by the stag to make sure i did not mention the 6 tranvestite prostitutes he took back to his hotel.

Thanks for reading