ibis budget Manchester Airport — Hotel in Manchester

We arrived at around 1 am, this morning following a flight from corfu. We were greeted by a group of about half a dozen, loud, drunk men, very abusive and foul mouthed, in the reception. An elderly couple were just leaving as it was very intimidating. I said to the receptionist it wasn't what we really wanted after a late flight, his response was that he'd had it all day and we should try that!! Nice!! We struggled to hear his instructions on how to operate the lift to the 5th floor, due to the shouting from the group of drunks. We went to the lift, armed with our key card, for room 508 I think it was? The key card had to be swiped on the lift sensor for access. You then had to put a room number in a pad. (The pad didn't have a number 8). I went back to reception, and explained the display was saying error and we couldn't get the lift to work. He was abrupt and rude, said I only had to put the "5" in the pad, not the "508" and it didn't display "error" that wasn't possible, go away and try again. There was a lovely guy cleaning the floor in reception, he said he would help us as the lift can be problematic and it does display "error" at times. We eventually got to our room. I say "room", more like an airing cupboard. It was tiny, the bed against the wall at one side, 3 coat hangers on a metal rod on the wall. We couldn't get the suitcase opened on the floor as the space was so small. The heat was overwhelming, but the window was sealed completely shut. The air conditioning unit was directly over the bed, so having a chronic neck condition, the option of this was not debatable. My husband has sleep apnea and uses a machine to keep him breathing whilst asleep. This needs to be at the side of the bed. This wasn't an option as one side of the bed was against the wall and the other side was less than a foot wide, with nowhere to put a table unless you didn't want to use the bathroom. There was a shelf over the bed, but not wide enough for the apparatus, and the pipe for the oxygen needs to come out of the side of the machine. He had to do without the breathing aid that night. It got better.... the bed was like concrete, and the pillows were shocking, 3 pillows, for 2 people, two so flat they weren't fit for purpose. The tea and coffee facilities were a joke, 2 sachets of coffee, paper cups and 4 tiny cartons of milk, so nothing allocated for the morning! The TV was on the wall, so close to the bed it was unwatchable. On throwing the duvets back we were confronted with a long black hair, nice. In the morning I found a hair scrunchie in the bed too!!! Nice. Thick dust on shelf above bed. Nice. My husband had absolutely not one minutes sleep, I managed around an hour, waking up feeling claustrophobic and unable to breathe, with a dry throat from the air conditioning unit blowing in our faces. The bathroom, however, was excellent!! Lovely towels too. The shower door only opens from about 1/3 way accross, so difficult to get into if you're more than about 8 stone, and the seal didn't exist on the inner edge, so the bathroom floor was soaked, but the actual fixtures and fittings are lovely. (Bit like placing a sequin on a rats backside me thinks!!). We went down to breakfast at 7.50 am, to basically escape the confines of what we could only compare to an airing cupboard. Breakfast was fine, fresh and well presented. The back of the seating was thick with fluff like tumbleweed in an old western movie and bits of food, including a Malteser for some reason. Again, the charming group of men were having breakfast, now sober, but still foul mouthed and quite intimidating. |The price of all this pleasure, which I could only describe as a shocking endurance test, was £93. DISGUSTING PLACE AND POSSIBLY THE WORST NIGHTS SLEEP WE HAVE EVER HAD. ...

Stayed overnight at this hotel and ended up being fined twice, once when I left the property for dinner and returned later that evening, and again for remaining parked into the next morning after checkout time. These were separate penalties, and both completely avoidable if the hotel had shown even a shred of professionalism or courtesy. What’s most frustrating is that at no point during check-in was I asked whether I had a vehicle, nor was I informed about any need to register it. I wasn’t offered the chance to log my plate number, wasn’t warned about time limits, and wasn’t told about enforcement. Instead, the hotel hides behind “clearly displayed signage” as if that excuses their failure to inform guests proactively. I’ve stayed at many hotels across the country, and nearly all of them follow one basic principle, if parking is regulated or charged, you’re told at the front desk. Staff either take your license plate number, give you a permit, or explain the process. That’s just standard practice. Here, nothing, no information, no heads-up, and clearly no concern for guest experience. The worst part? Both fines were issued during what any guest would consider normal use of the hotel parking lot. I didn’t overstay by hours, I wasn’t abusing the space. I was simply using it as a guest should. Punishing people for stepping out for dinner or staying through to morning checkout is not just unwelcoming it’s exploitative. It’s hard not to see this setup as deliberately designed to catch guests off guard. It’s bad enough to deal with surprise fines, but the lack of accountability or communication from the hotel staff made it even worse.

[Edit - In Response to the owner] - At no point during the booking process was it clearly communicated that parking would incur an additional fee. This omission is misleading, as many guests would reasonably expect parking to be included in the room rate. Especially given that this is the standard practice at numerous hotels. Furthermore, if parking charges are not included, such information should be prominently disclosed either during the booking or at the very latest upon check-in. My attention was primarily on completing the check-in process itself, so I’m not consciously or actively looking out for any signs. Despite your claim that the hotel is willing to address my concerns, my experience has been quite the opposite. I am already £150 out of pocket and now I am facing an additional fine for the same visit. When I raised this issue a few days ago, I spoke with someone at the hotel who said he was the manager. Unfortunately, he was dismissive, rude and unhelpful, showing little interest in resolving the problem. Instead, he simply told me to contact Smart Parking directly, effectively avoiding any...

The hotel is in a great location, very close to both the train station and Terminal 2 (though some of the roadworks around the area are a little confusing this isn't the hotel's fault). It has a bar and small restaurant with a pool table downstairs, along with some vending machines. The restaurant does things like pizza, burgers, simple pastas etc.; I got in the lift with someone taking some pizza back to their room and it smelt amazing so I had to get one! A little bit pricey, but that's kind of expected for airport hotel food, though it was worth it as the pizza was freshly made. Very convenient being able to take it up to my room and chill out. The room itself was more than adequate, clean and had everything you need. I'm not really sure what more they could do to improve things at the kind of prices you pay for hotels like this. In fact in some ways it was better than more expensive hotels in the area simply because I liked having the vending machines on site to buy a drink or little snack late at night where other hotels have long shut up everything and there's no one about and nothing to buy. It was over £20 a night cheaper than other hotels in the area at the time I booked it so again, I really don't know what else you can ask for. I did try to book a stay on my return but prices had gone up and it was the same price to stay at one of the nicer hotels nearby; if that's the case then by all means go for the nicer hotel but if you're early enough to take advantage of the cheaper prices this place offers it's definitely worth it. Negative reviews seem to focus on there being no hairdryer (who cares, bring your own) or Chinese people complaining about there being no bottled water or slippers something; I'd rather save £20 on the room than some pointless gesture like free bottled water and slippers. Someone mentioned they couldn't check in until 3pm... isn't that the normal check in time for hotels? What are these people...