Village Hotel & Leisure Club, Bury

...couple of nights at the Village Hotel and Leisure Club at Bury.

Village Hotels are part of a much larger group, including De Vere Hotels, Malmaison and Hotel du Vin. I have been familiar with Village Hotels for a long time, having frequented many a works conference or party at other hotels within the North West 15-20 years ago; (however I should point out that I now work for another part of this group.)

The hotel, ...
...a comfortable stay at the Village Hotel Bury. Prices for rooms are certainly very affordable and I would certainly stay here again on my next visit to Manchester – making sure I get better use of the leisure facilities next time.


Waterfold Business Park
Rochdale Road
Bury
BL9 7BQ

T: 0161 764 4444  ... more

Bury might not be the top of everyone’s destination list, although it is not a million miles from the more popular city centre of Manchester (and linked to the city via the metrolink network). However being from Lancashire originally, I have just spent the best part of the last two weeks in the region, including a couple of nights at the Village Hotel and Leisure Club at Bury.

Village Hotels are part of a much larger group, including De Vere Hotels, Malmaison and Hotel du Vin. I have been familiar with Village Hotels for a long time, having frequented many a works conference or party at other hotels within the North West 15-20 years ago; (however I should point out that I now work for another part of this group.)

The hotel, which is a modern purpose built hotel, is easy to find from the Manchester Ring Road – situated just off Junction 2 of the M66. Parking will not be a problem, as the car park is absolutely huge. The hotel has 128 bedrooms, which is a nice size, but the hotel is also frequented by local residents using the leisure club. The surrounding area is classified as a Business park, but the hotel sits pretty much alone, its closest neighbour being a family pub.

Note it definitely has 128 beds, not 98 as Ciao states..I think it may have been extended at some point.

Booking can be done on line from the website (http://www.village-hotels.co.uk/hotels/Bury/) or by ringing the hotel and speaking with reservations. I booked three rooms for my sisters and myself but to give an idea of rates, there are special rates from as little as £65 per room including breakfast at the moment, available on the web.

My first impressions were positive – the reception is a large area with plenty of activity and comfy seating – and it being midweek there were plenty of business people about. The actual hotel is elevated from the road and there is about 15-20 steps to climb, however there is a lift for those less able to manage luggage and stairs. From reception guests can easily access all other parts of the hotel – the informal pub restaurant, the formal restaurant and the Health Club.

We all had a standard room – although my elder sister almost got an upgrade to a new double superior room – but she actually required a twin so she ended up in a standard twin just like the rest of us and had to forego her upgrade..or risk being kicked all night by her daughter...Some rooms have been refurbished to a newer contemporary style.

The standard room was very clean and pleasant with light coloured wood units and crisp white bedding and was more than comfortable for our stay and included all the essentials for our stay. I particularly liked the bathroom toiletries, they were very modern and lively and the shower gel was of a very generous size bottle indeed – I noticed they were provided by Arran Aromatics, which has fantastic products and has been one of my favourites from the time when I was living in Ayrshire.

Given the purpose of our trip (planning and then attending our Mother’s funeral) we did not actually make huge use of the hotels facilities. We did however all eat dinner in the informal pub lounge bar each night. (We were not in the mood for big dinners or formal dining). The pub menu was more than adequate for us, consisting mainly of different variety of sandwiches, burgers etc and a few hot plates. I enjoyed a Club Sandwich with fries on my first night and a burger on the second. The sandwiches and burgers are served on a board rather than a plate, with individualised sauces e.g. coleslaw etc. We did manage to partake of a few bottles of wine between us also and again prices were very reasonable. There is some seating outside at the front of the hotel – but given the rain we have had over the last 2 weeks – we obviously didn’t use that either!

On our second evening, there was a pub quiz which we entered as a family of six. Entry was complimentary. Either the brains were not fully engaged or we let ourselves down with our music knowledge (the 15 year old in our group went to the bathroom at the wrong time!) but we managed a reasonable third place (ok so it was out of five!). We followed that up with a very stressful game of bingo which regrettably we didn’t win either.

One service I did make use of was the free internet available to all residents, which covers all bedrooms, and was a bonus in being to access email etc over the time we were there.

Breakfast was included in our rate and is served in the formal dining restaurant. The hot food was sometimes served as a buffet and sometimes it was to order, (depending on number of people staying over I presume) and there was the normal choice of continental breakfast items including pastries, yoghurts etc which was buffet style – and very generous coffee pots.

In summary, while I wasn’t there to enjoy myself, we had a comfortable stay at the Village Hotel Bury. Prices for rooms are certainly very affordable and I would certainly stay here again on my next visit to Manchester – making sure I get better use of the leisure facilities next time.

Waterfold Business Park
Rochdale Road
Bury
BL9 7BQ

T: 0161 764 4444 

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