Travelodge

.../> We looked on the Travelodge website and found a hotel called the Manchester Central. That seemed to meet the "central" criteria! There was also an offer for £26 per night per room. That seemed to meet the "cheap" criteria! A few clicks and we were in. The hotel can be found on Blackfriars Street, around five minutes walk from Victoria Train Station and about 15 minutes from Piccadilly Station. As we couldn't check in until ...
...the bridge and found the Travelodge a short distance up there on the right. It was pretty easy to find and was quite a large building that even I found difficult to miss!

If you are going there by car there is a free car park, but spaces are limited. If you can't get a space there is a pay and display car park in Market Street that costs around £10 for 24 hours. If you want to get a tram from the train stations you will still have ... more

Last weekend we got tickets to see Rick Astley play at the Lowry Theatre in Salford Quays, near Manchester. Last year we did the same and stayed in a hotel near to the theatre. This was convenient in terms of getting to and from the Lowry Centre, but the downside was that there was little else for us to do before the concert. This year we decided to stay in the centre of Manchester and get the tram to the concert. We marked out a few decent pubs on the map and had a quick shufty on the old t'internet for a hotel in the vicinity. The watchwords were cheap, central and hopefully cheerful ~ the emphasis being on CHEAP!

~~~WHERE DID WE PICK?

We looked on the Travelodge website and found a hotel called the Manchester Central. That seemed to meet the "central" criteria! There was also an offer for £26 per night per room. That seemed to meet the "cheap" criteria! A few clicks and we were in. The hotel can be found on Blackfriars Street, around five minutes walk from Victoria Train Station and about 15 minutes from Piccadilly Station. As we couldn't check in until 3pm we went from Piccadilly to a couple of pubs en route (having lunch and a few drinks as we went) aiming to arrive at the hotel at the right time to avoid hanging round.

We ended up approaching the hotel from the city centre so came up along North along Deansgate (from the direction of the Town Hall) and when we reached the junction between St. Mary's Gate and Blackfriars Street we headed left over the bridge and found the Travelodge a short distance up there on the right. It was pretty easy to find and was quite a large building that even I found difficult to miss!

If you are going there by car there is a free car park, but spaces are limited. If you can't get a space there is a pay and display car park in Market Street that costs around £10 for 24 hours. If you want to get a tram from the train stations you will still have to walk a little way. We walked from St. Peter's tram stop, but it was probably closer to Moseley Street.

~~~BOOKING AND PRICES.

As I said, we booked online and got a special offer on the rooms. You can book via the link at http://www.travelodge.co.uk/find_a_hotel/hotel/hotel_id/153/ManchesterCentral and, at the moment there are also some £10 rooms available (usual room price seems to be £45 per room per night). There is a choice of either double, twin or family rooms.

~~~WHAT IS IT LIKE?

From the outside the Manchester Central could be any Travelodge in any town or city. A large several storey building, not very attractive to look at and a bit featureless. From the inside the Manchester Central could also be any Travelodge in any town or city! You enter through a foyer into the large reception area. In this big room there is the reception, leading to the bar and the dining room, with another door which opens onto the lift and stairs to the bedrooms. All this is quite modern but also a little lacking in the homeliness department!

~~~CHECKING IN & OUT.

This was easy, if a little on the late side. As we had booked online we just provided a printout of the booking reference number and we were in. The lady on the desk was helpful and friendly, explaining when we should check out by and offering us the option to book breakfast for the following morning. As this would be £6.50 each and there was a Wetherspoons close by offering a huge (and I mean huge) breakfast for £3.49 we declined.

Check out has to be by midday on the day of departure, but we would be leaving much earlier for our train home. Again check out was painless ~ especially so because we had paid in advance and hadn't run up any further bills. All we needed to do was hand in our card keys and leave.

~~~THE ROOMS.

Once we had managed to get a lift (only one of the two rather inadequate lifts was working and this one was full of staff and laundry) we went up to our room on the third floor. We were pleasantly surprised to find a good sized, bright and airy room. There was a king sized bed with a modern and clean duvet cover. The bed also had four pillows ~ a bonus as usually there is only one thin pillow, resulting in a bad neck and a not very comfy night's rest.

All Travelodge rooms are pretty much identical and have a couple of bed side tables, a dressing table, a chair (sometimes two), telephone and TV (although getting the remote control to work was an art in itself). There was also a bit of information about the hotel ~ meal times, menu, room service prices and the like, as well as a little doofer that you could pay by for movies if you wanted. Alun was also happy to see there was a kettle and tea and coffee making facilities in the room ~ the nice lady on Reception was also happy to provide extra milk and coffee when we asked.

The bathroom was also of a good size and had a bath with (ancient) shower attachment. I was disappointed that the shower head couldn't detach to make hair washing easy and that there was no hairdryer in the room, or any toiletries (aside from a miniscule tablet of soap and a toilet roll). It was clean though, if a little on the old fashioned side.

As with a lot of this type of hotel rooms there seemed an awful lot of light switches ~ I think we finally mastered the secret code of which ones to press in which order to get all the lights to switch off to go to sleep!

~~~OTHER FACILITIES.

The hotel also has a few facilities that we didn't use. These were the Bar Café, a Meeting Room, a Cash Point (very useful if you are running low and need to pay the £6.50 for breakfast), internet access and a vending machine with a few snacks and drinks. We also noticed that there was a choice of smoking and non-smoking rooms and a number of rooms that had been adapted for wheelchair users and those with mobility problems ~ it's to hope that both lifts are normally working though.

~~~FINAL THOUGHTS.

Travelodges are by no means my favourite places to stay, but they are certainly better than a lot of the grubby hotels and Guest Houses I have stayed in. For £26 a night it was very good value and was comfortable, clean and had enough facilities for a couple of nights stay. The Manchester Central, though not as central as the name implied, was in a good location (the Arndale shopping centre and the railway stations aren't too far away) and was just what we were expecting it to be. DON'T expect five star accommodation and luxury, but DO expect a pleasant night's stay.

~~~HOTEL DETAILS.

Travelodge Manchester Central Hotel
Blackfriars Street
Manchester M3 5AL

Tel: 0870 191 1659
Fax: 0161 819 2906
http://www.travelodge.co.uk/travelodge/ location.php?hotel_id=153
 

...less