The Place Apartment Hotel - Manchester, United Kingdom     

After a simple booking procedure on website, amazed to find what appeared to be a 4 star hotel at such a reasonable price ( 2 people ) on a Sunday evening. Needed a Manchester base to visit son on Monday during day. Charming arrival clerk in this modern spacious hotel, built inside one of many old MAnchester industrial buildings, charmingly restored but maintaining many orginal brick and girder features. On getting out of lift, the grandeur of the building became apparent, all rooms are built around a square "hollow" centre. Then the amazing part, your room is indeed a full blown apartment with evry facility imaginable. Lounge with TV DVD Stereo, dining table, sofa withy picture windows overlooking the interior central "hollow". Into ridiculously well equipped kitchen with dishwasher, wash machine, huge fridge freezer, oven, microwave, toaster, kettle etc etc etc. Enough tea/coffee making facilities to last a week , let alone a day- even a fresh milk carton in the fridge. Double Bedroom well equipped with wardrobes, drawers etc. Large bathroom and long corridor complete the "total" package. Highly secure night entry - even card entry needed to access your floor from the lift ! So 5 stars for the location and accommodation. Breakfast ( included in my deal )was an extensive continental. Absolutely excellent with one exception - coffee was possibly instant - or very weak percolated. Should have asked to change it but didnt. Instead, very impressed with their response to request for soya milk - they had none so they went out to get some especially. In summary, just cant wait to go back there. Unusual accommodation, great service and extremely reasonable for the quality being offered. PS. If you have time, a MUST visit restaurantwise is the japanese experience "SAPPORO". Food cooked before your eyes, with each chef supplying a fun floor show as he cooks. And the food is to die for. It costs but worth a special visit.

We stayed for 4 nights, Thursday til Monday. The location is great, central enough without feeling too overcrowded by people and buildings around you. First off, a credit goes to ALL staff who were at all times courteous and helpful. As for the apartment itself, well on first entrance we had to gasp as how good it looked, I have lived in smaller, less equipped flats! Everything you could need is there, it was tempting to stay in and not move just to enjoy it. The flat was cleaned everyday to a high standard each time. It was such a thrill to get full sized bath towels rather than the flannel sized things most hotels provide! So what was wrong with the place? The noise, doors banged a lot, they need to have those slow closing doors and provide door stoppers. We were in a corner flat but we still could hear people walking by laughing and talking, particularly in the early hours of Saturday and Sunday! The heat, although they do provide fans on request it got unbearabley warm even with the heaters all off and with only one small outside window in the back room it was hard to cool down. The washer dryer is a waste of time, clothes came out no cleaner and the dryer didn't dry. It would be better to have pull-up blinds rather than pull down as you kind of feel closed in having the blinds down all the time for privacy. In the front bedroom they definately need to have darker blinds and/or extra window coverage, the bedroom stayed bright all night because of the lights outside and there was a gap at the sside where people could ( in theory) look in at you. Finally the beds. VERY uncomfortable. Lumpy and extremely creaky at the slightest movement. Forget trendyness, they need to invest in some quality hotel beds. The Place is a great option if there are a few of you and you want ta self catering option but considering the price and the fact it fell sshort of 4 star standards on many levals I can only give this a 3 sstar rating.