Chancellors Hotel - Manchester, United Kingdom 

A well kept secret
Posted: Tue, May 13 2008
To be enjoyed properly, an evening in Manchester needs a hotel for the night. When Manchester United play at home, all the medium priced hotels fill up quickly, so it looked like we were going for an early exit and the last train home. I checked every day for cancellations - but the only hotel available was The Grafton - and I'd rather spend a night in a cardboard box than stay there. I started widening my search - checking every web-site I could think of. But the home game at Old Trafford meant there was no room at any inn. Then I came across gtahotels.com which claimed to have rooms at a hotel I'd never heard of. The Chancellors is just off Moseley Road, behind Owens Park, at the bottom end of Wilmslow Road. This is the continuation of Oxford Road as you head south out of the city. Check in was a breeze and the hotel looked like it was half empty, despite a wedding party. The ensuite room and bed were on the small side, but had everything you'd expect. Telly, coffee and biccies, hair dryer. Being hidden in the sprawling grounds of the University, it was extremely quiet. A pleasant change for a hotel in Manchester. Breakfast in the morning was basic. Cereal, juice, fruit, toast and full English from a buffet cart. They did nothing fancy and had nothing additional for a vegetarian. But it was all fine and no complaints. This is a conference centre and I imagine they're used to dealing with large numbers of business clients who are just looking to cover the basics and don't want to pay for frills. As such, it ticks all the boxes and delivers what you need. For ?69, you can book a room and a two way taxi ride to the city centre - which would take ten minutes at most. This makes it very reasonable and as parking is free, cheaper than staying at any hotel in the city centre. For comparison. Premier Inn is ?62. Parking is ?16 at the QPark next door - and breakfast is ?15 for two. That's ?93 in total - ?24 more. We paid ?58 and got the bus on Wilmslow Road for ?1. The stop was a couple of minutes walk through Owens Park. Manchester Academy is only five minutes by bus - and the world famous Curry Mile in Rusholme is walkable in fifteen. If you're visiting the Curry Mile, The Sangam is worth a visit. This is the first curry house on the left as you leave the city (so last on the right if you're travelling from this hotel). Would definately stay there again.