"There's 2 key things I look for when booking a room. One is it has to have a safe. I often bring my Nikon camera with me but don't necessarily want to carry it everywhere - so a safe where I can leave circa £3000 of camera and lenses is a must.
The other is more personal - I really detest fixed head showers. I don't trust them from a cleanliness perspective but importantly I find them restrictive when in a shower in terms of fully rinsing, etc.
I have other requirements and preferences, but those are the 2 that matter most to me. So when I look to book a hotel I check the room specifications for a safe and look at listing photos to see what type of shower it is.
So onto the Manchester Piccadilly Hotel. First impressions (sans parking... more on that later) were positive. The reception staff member who checked me in was excellent. Friendly, professional and made me feel welcome. The hotel also has a large and spacious lobby, giving it a nice feel compared to some of the more cramped receptions you can often find.
What wasn't great was that the hotel doesn't take American Express. I made the reservation on the Accor website with Amex and fully expected to be able to use that payment method when actually in the hotel. An annoying inconvenience that should have been highlighted in the booking process.
In the (not exceptionally clean) elevator to the 12th floor and entering the room my door slammed behind me so loudly I was glad it was 5pm and I probably didn't wake the whole floor up. No soft-close here. The room is pretty large and a nice sized bed. There is a good sized desk to work on and a proper high-backed office-style chair, which was appreciated.
The internet connection was also excellent for me. I have to run a brief Teams meeting that evening and a longer one the next morning and had no problems at all with getting a good connection.
I was meeting colleagues for dinner and went for a shower to find my (I understand this is a personal thing) dreaded fixed-head shower. Worse, standing in the shower the head came to about my chin-height so I had to duck down and lean forward to get my hair wet. I am not particularly tall - just under 6". So overall not a comfortable experience.
But worse was the ring of pink bacteria build-up circling the plastic shower head. See the photo attached.
Getting ready to leave and I started looking for the room safe to put my camera, lenses and laptop in. I couldn't find it anywhere. I even went back to the hotel listing to see if I'd missed something, but no. Clearly lists a safe.
I didn't feel safe leaving it in the room so found myself my camera bag with me that evening and everywhere for the next 48 hours. Annoying but also slightly worrying carrying that value around Manchester late into the evening.
I did ask reception before I left that evening if I had missed something but she seemed (a) surprised when I showed her the Accor website listing and (b) was kind enough to offer to leave it in her (I assume office) room. I still wouldn't feel safe (pun intended) that way. I just expect a hotel to live up to its listing promises.
Of course, when a couple of things annoy you then you start to notice other things. After showering there was puddle of water on the floor near the door. There was clearly a leak between the wall and shower screen. Also the bathroom was generally tired.
To be fair, there was a sign near the lifts that refurbishments were ongoing, so not everyone would get the same poor fixture quality.
Other things like some weird hardened sticky substance on the back of the door make you realise this is a 2* hotel being listed as a 4*.
Positives - the bed is extremely comfortable. Curtains block out all light. Heating was good during a particularly cold snap. And overall the room was cleaned to an acceptable standard. Fantastic location.
Negatives - No room safe! Dirty, bacteria-infested shower head. Payment options not as expected. Parking - I was there 2 days but you are only able to pay 24 hours at a time. I know this isn't run by the hotel but it is hotel grounds - I shouldn't need to set an alarm to remind me to pay for new parking 24 hours later! Details - I used 2 sachets of Nescafe on the first morning. On the 2nd morning I went to make a coffee only to discover the maid had refreshed them with decaf sachets. So now I had FOUR decaf sachets of Nescafe - clearly I had a preference given my usage.
And a final small negative.... the toilet roll was mounted with the loose end against the wall.
I can't imagine staying at this hotel again, if only for the room safe and shower location. Maybe ok for a single night but nothing more."
