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Our venue for the second time was The Thistle Hotel, Manchester, opposite what was once, as I understand Piccadilly Gardens (now under redevelopment and due for completion summer 2003, although part of it has been completed and provides a nice bit of greenery in an otherwise concrete city) ... Read review
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from which to explore this exciting and vibrant city.The hotel overlooks Piccadilly Gardens, and is within 5 minutesÆ walk of the central shopping area, the financial and commercial districts, and the cityÆs theatres. The great location makes the hotel a good choice, whether you are exploring the city as a tourist, visiting Manchester on business or attending a conference. The hotel is also a convenient base from which to explore Lancashire, Cheshire and the Lake District. The great facilities include a sauna, a jacuzzi and fitness centre, a lively bar and restaurant and a spacious reception and lounge area to welcome guests.
205 bedrooms including 12 suites and no fewer than nine meeting rooms the largest of which seats 300 theatre styleIn the heart of the city we are ideally placed for people in Manchester to do business Were also just five minutes walk from the Arndale Centre Europes largest city centre shopping mall plenty of our guests are here purely for pleasure too With NCP parking available nearby Thistle Manchester puts the citys many other attractions within easy reach including the Lowry Centre and of course the hallowed turf of Old Trafford; but if you simply want to relax our Otium Health and Leisure Club has everything you could wish for without even leaving the hotel
A review by sue.51 on Thistle Manchester October 9th, 2001
Author's product rating:
Value for Money
Quality of Rooms
Standard of Service
Quality of Facilities
Advantages:
Excellent Location, good breakfast
Disadvantages:
Small rooms, expensive bar
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Well, I had to try and come up with some sort of reason why I am steadily working my way up one side and down the other side of the hotels in Portland Street, Manchester.
My latest experience of this amazing city, of which I had never had the pleasure of visiting prior to April 2001, was after being lucky enough to be selected as part of a team to partake in a footie quiz on Digital TV in the not too distant future - although can't say any more than that at the mo! I can tell you now we lost the first two games, and we have just come back from filming the last two - no more than that at the mo I'm afraid.
Our venue for the second time was The Thistle Hotel, Manchester, opposite what was once, as I understand Piccadilly Gardens (now under redevelopment and due for completion summer 2003, although part of it has been completed and provides a nice bit of greenery in an otherwise concrete city) and about 5 minutes walk from Manchester Piccadilly train station and the Arndale Centre.
The hotel has 205 bedrooms, a minute reception area, a newly refurbished bar and restaurant area, bland and small with a wide screen for those all important footie matches, and prices that would have all but the most hardened wallets running for the sanctity of the amazingly cheaper Jarvis Piccadilly on the opposite side of the road - £2.65 for a cold bottle of Stella - we had one round for 3 people and one round for 2 and the bill came to £13 (and I thought things were supposed to be cheaper up North)
Check-in was not smooth; a party of 5 arriving at 2.30pm after a long and arduous train journey found not all the rooms were ready, and that pub and wide screen were beckoning (yes England did just have a small game on) - so all the gear was dumped and off to locate the TV, but believe me that is a different story.
Check in second time around was plain sailing.
OCTOBER Manchester city centre was most certainly NOT over-run with friendly inviting pubs in which we could watch the game (no jeans/trainers on a Saturday afternoon??) and we ended up in the old faithful (& cheap) Portland Bar, which certainly livened up as the tensions and the match progressed. People were really friendly and the atmosphere was wicked.
BACK TO THE HOTEL Our price for a double room was £70 (including breakfast). The 205 rooms are spread out over 7 floors and boy are they small? - the words 'cat' and 'swing' would definitely not go together in this place - plainly furnished - we were on this occasion blessed with a window (which is more than I can say about the Britannia) although the view was concrete and more hotel rooms.
The room consisted of a double bed (sheets & feather pillows - no quilts in site), trouser press, kettle, hairdryer, radio, remote control colour TV with teletext and ALL 3 Sky Sports Channels, and for an extra £6.99 you could buy a 'mucky' film that you could watch as much as you wanted over 24 hours.
The bathroom was even smaller than the room and housed toilet, bath & very effective shower and hand basin - the towel rail was strategically placed over the bath and being a bit of a shortie, it managed to hit me over the head about three times whilst taking a shower.
The Hotel also sported a leisure pool and Gym, but time was precious and we didn't have chance to have a nose.
Like most of the hotels in this area, there is no car-parking, although I do believe the hotel negotiates a special rate with one of the many NCP car-parks behind the hotel (£10 per 24 hours as opposed to the standard £12.50) - you get 15 minutes to get your car out after getting your ticket stamped - not funny if you are parked on the top floor - the hotel does also offer a valet service for the same price. Overnight stay is £5 if you leave before 9am - in this case you will be better off paying in the car-park machines.
There are two small lifts and the hotel claims disabled people in wheelchairs can comfortably stay unaccompanied - although how a wheelchair would have got through out bedroom door is anyone's guess.
A WORD OF WARNING: This hotel supplies Feather Pillows (to which I am allergic) and were quite taken aback when I asked for new pillows - so if you do have a problem with them, take your own or ask early on.
UPDATE JANUARY: This time we were provided with a refurbished room - SMALL, VERY VERY SMALL - But complete with iron and mini ironing board, 2 telephones with modem points plus a telephone in the bathroom, air conditioning, free bottle of water - and this time, hollow-fibre pillows, must have read my op on Ciao.
================MY FAVOURITE BIT FOOD If I was disappointed with the hotel, I certainly cannot say the same about the breakfast which consisted of:
A range of cereals
Fresh Fruit in Juice
A variety of fruit juices
Bacon
Scrambled and Fried Eggs
Mushrooms
Bacon
Black Pudding
Baked Beans
Tomatoes
Fried Bread
Happy smiling potato faces
Sausages (the tastiest I have had for a long time)
White/Wholemeal toast with conserve
Bread rolls of all types (included the lovely crusty seeded ones)
Tea/Coffee
UPDATE: No change here apart from the fact that I had a dodgy tummy from the night before and thus couldn't eat anything. ===========================As I said earlier, there is a restaurant at the hotel, but the word pricey springs to mind - £2.50 for a portion of chips - £3.00 for carrots - needless to say, we elected to sample the delights of China Town but thats a different story.
THE ALL IMPORTANT QUESTION HOW MUCH? Good question - I did ask as I quite often travel to Manchester on business - (The breakfast really was that good) - but reception would not give me a rate, advising me that they change daily according to demand
In the Thistle breaks brochure - a one night stay costs £68 per person B&B (ouch) and £41 per person B&B low season on a Thistle Savers break which requires a minimum two night stay (not cheap and certainly better deals around this area which really is hotel city - as long as you are not staying when England/Man U are playing at Old Trafford).
Best bet if you fancy this hotel is contact them at: Portland Street Piccadilly Gardens Manchester M1 6DP Telephone: 0161 228 3400 CENTRAL RESERVATIONS - Telephone: 0870 333 9139 E-Mail: Manchester@Thistle.co.uk
SUMMARY Not bad, the food made up for lack of space, but with so many to chose from around here - it would not necessarily be my first choice.
...good hotel. I chose The Thistle Hotel in Portland Street because it was close to the trains station and the city centre. Also, I remembered having seen it as a setting for a TV drama (only the dining room), and thought at the time that it was a lovely hotel with nice decor. I booked a double room through Lastminute.com and paid £152.00 not including breakfast. Expensive, but hopefully worth it.
First good point : The room was ready on arrival (about ... ...good, a hot and cold buffet, and well worth the reasonable £12.50 each. However, the service was poor, refils were slow to appear and we had to ask for things like glasses and ketchup, which earned us a few exasperated looks. I'd probably asked the wrong people to assist, but they were the only ones available at the time.
Third good point : Tea and coffee making facilities
Fourth good point: Ummmm?
Ok, i'll quickly move on to the negatives. My ...
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Advantages: Great Location, friendly staff Disadvantages: over priced.
...I booked this hotel as part of a birthday present for my boyfriend. We were going to watch a concert in the evening and I wanted a hotel with good facilities such as a pool, sauna etc to chill out in during the day.
There are not many hotels in Manchester with these facilities so I went for the Thistle as it was alot cheaper than other hotels with a pool, jacuzzi and sauna. I paid £79 for one night at the weekend.
We arrived about 1.30pm and although it states check in is at 2 o'clock we thought we would try a bit earlier. The staff on reception were very friendly and checking in that bit early was not a problem. The reception is quite elegant looking with security on the door of an evening and a restaurant and bar, which we didnt use.
We were given our key card and went up to the room. I was a bit aprehansive as I had read...
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Advantages: Location, good sized rooms Disadvantages: Not very clean, prices
...As a travel agent I tend to get offered preferential rates at certain hotels, this is usually to try and fill up empty rooms in their hotels. One year everyone in our department decided to have a girly New Year in Manchester and I was given the job of organising the hotel and at New Year it is not the easiest of tasks.
The Thistle Hotel offered special rates to agents of £25 per room, this I thought would be ideal as I needed to make an agent's booking I had to use the dedicated agent's booking line to make the reservation which works in a similar way to telephone reservations for the general public, alternatively the Thistle Hotel has an online booking system to make a reservation.
A Brief guide to making a reservation:-
My tip is to first visit the website to check the online availability of the room then you save yourself a few...
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Advantages: clean and spotless hotel, friendly staff , great food Disadvantages: on a main road.
...the hotel the night before we flew and stay there all refreshed, then get up in the morning and get on the plane.
The hotel I fancied the best, or was it because it was a well known name, was The Thistle near Manchester airport. We have already stayed at a Thistle Hotel in Manchester city centre, and after swapping rooms once, we found it ok. This time, we hoped for something a little more luxurious.
Jumping the gun a bit, I booked with ABC holidays and a week or so later, I received the accomodation voucher.
Dave and I was expecting the hotel to be in the airports surroundings and to leave the car there, but when we arrived, it was at least 5 miles away from the airport, but actually felt about a lot more. We found the hotel quite easily with written directions on the voucher. It's actually on Wilmslow Rd off the M60, then you follow signs...
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12.02.2007
22.03.2003
