Express By Holiday Inn Manchester East - Manchester, United Kingdom 

This is the worst Express by Holiday Inn I have ever stayed in. Before we even got in the Hotel there's posters from the police on the door warning car owners about the risk of break ins in the car park and again this poster is on the wall behind Reception. Reception wasn't manned and there was no sign of staff so we ended up waiting nearly 10 minutes to check in. The Receptionist on duty (don't know her name as she wasn't wearing a name badge. 11am on the 31st Dec) was sullen and unhelpful. Had to drag information from her and all we asked was how do we get to the Trafford Centre? Simple question for a Receptionist to answer I would have thought. On the Reception desk it had leaflets that went out of date in August, 4 months ago. There was a sign telling you the managers on duty and the name on the sign didn't change in 4 days. When we got to the Room the glass on the window had been smashed and replaced. The broken glass was still outside on the ground and the tape was still on the window where the glass was replaced. On the second day our room wasn't serviced and on the day we were checking out we had arranged a late check out at 1pm with the Receptionist on check in however Reception called us at 1130am asking us to check out. No communication. The rooms have no air conditioning however they have an excellent heater. On the night of the 31st there was a male Receptionist on duty, Mark. His appearance was shabby, he had a t shirt hanging out under his shirt and jumper, very scruffy and not smart as in most other hotels. While I was asking him to give me taxi numbers he was eating his dinner while talking to me. I have never experienced a Receptionist eating dinner behind a Reception desk and holding the plate while dealing with a customer. He was not interested in helping me and kept telling me you wont get a taxi tonight, despite me phoning one and it came in 10 minutes. I asked for a specific taxi firm number and he wouldn't help me find it. He could have easily found this on the internet. I asked for a phone book to find the number and was told no we don't have phone books. He was not interested in doing anything to help guests and sounded annoyed when he spoke to you. Worst customer service in a Hotel I have ever came across. There was a very nice and helpful Receptionist on at the weekend evening of 29th and morning of 30th however again no name badge on. She was the only member of staff on duty for the whole Hotel while on shift. We stayed in this Hotel for 3 nights and only went to breakfast on the first morning. There was hardly any choice of food, cereal (milk was hot), toast and grapefruit. On check out our rate was wrong for the 3 nights but the Receptionist sorted this out immediately. The area is a bit rough however its not a patch on this awful Hotel. There seems to be a lack of customer service, communication, attention to detail and management in this Hotel. Avoid this Hotel at all costs.

Situated in a run down area of Manchester this hotel is not the best. I wouldn't recommend walking around this area at night and the hotel had posters advising to watch your valuables in cars etc which didn't give us much confidence. The hotel itself is pretty run down and the net curtains in our room were pretty shabby. It shows the type of people this hotel must have staying when they have to put a screw into the back of the remote control so that nobody steals the batteries!!! 50% of the staff were unhelpful, we only seen about 4 different members of staff - not all were wearing name badges and the appearance of some members of staff was not the best. We also had one member of staff eating dinner from a plate when we were asking advice from him. When asked any questions about travelling to different parts of Manchester the staff were not very helpful and didn't give us the correct information. The hotel is situated on the outskirts of the city centre and if you have no transport then it is a 20 minute bus journey every day to the city centre which costs around £3 for a return ticket. The taxi ride into the city centre at night cost around £12. I will not be returning to this hotel in the future it is not in the best area and the staff were not properly trained to deal with members of the public.