Pending review
Acklams coach trip - 1 night stay Christmas market & Trafford centre.
Booked a Christmas market shopping trip with ACKLAMS COACHES!! Ended up here as they said other hotel double booked us. Firstly we paid for bed breakfast evening meal for our break. We were told no evening meal here so ACKLAMS refunded us £10 basically fend for yourself. Where can you get a evening meal for £10. Not here very expensive to eat in this hotel. They do offer room service 24 hours though but please make sure you bring a telephone as you're room does NOT provide you with a telephone to enable you to call reception to ask for room service, even if you did want it. Check in was quick I must say, the room was very cold we put the heater on but it didn't seem to heat up too well. No instructions for the TV or the heating or the area or what time breakfast was served or check out etc etc. So I assumed you could wake up and breakfast would be cooked freshly for you if you fancied a nice Sunday morning lay in, or maybe they would bring it to my room, if I could call them from a telephone provided? Or did we have to request a telephone if we needed one!! I just don't know, as no information. The TV was large but not many channels around about 7 to choose from no Freeview, now being a 4 star advertised you would expect Freeview and a room telephone right!
The quilts were thin summer type quilts although the bed very comfortable and pillows also.
We received 1 single small glass bottle of water for a twin room, I assume this was to fight over or who ever was less thirsty. Again 4 star hotel you would expect at least a small bottle each.
The room was clean the curtain didn't close properly had to fight the low hanging bulb which near enough looked ready to explode if the kettle boiled near it, it was practically sat on top of the kettle. Only 2 towels which needed more as when you have hair you need something to pop your hair in to once you wash this, but again no telephone to call reception! In the shower 2 lovely bottles stood attached to the wall very nice looking bottles to my horror these both labeled hand soap!! I mean who has hand soap to wash with in the shower ? And for your hair ?.
Toilet time .... 2 loo rolls not that big at that and only a lovely shiny handle to the toilet brush hanging on the wall ..... unsure where the rest was meant to be hiding! However couldn't give it a clean before we left SORRY about that, but wasn't going to start popping my hand down there.
We all gathered in the bar area for a few cocktails we thought due to Acklams coaches totally ruining our evening as it was ... Best make the night of it! Oh no ... no cocktails left ran out of ice the young boy informed us as he opened the ice machine door!! How do you run out of ice on a Saturday night in a ice machine that makes its own ice!! So couple of bottles of Craft cow cider it was then..... missed out on a lot of sales that night at the bar!!
Then on to the night in bed no channels on the TV no telephone to call down ... no number to call if we had a mobile us in our pjs by then bit of a wash out really!!
Flip to breakfast ... 7.40am lovely lay out lot to offer cold buffet laid out lovely hot buffet nice. Plates freezing cold and everything just luke warm. Was the hot storage turned on ? Couple of girls running round checking on things, one guy looking like he was a customer in his sports jacket and baseball cap. I went to the bar to ask for a glass of water and stood and waited whilst 2 woman in there coats chatted behind the bar then noticed me, I asked for a glass of ice water then they went to look for the base ball cap guy to get me this.
Overall I wouldn't say it was a 4 star hotel, more like a simple 2 star hotel in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of 2 cities that's cheaper to stay in. A little more bit of decoration downstairs than your added Travel lodge to try make it look plush but doesn't really suit no purpose for anyone or anything. The drinks and food is well over priced as nothing else around so can get away with charging it. The breakfast I'd of probably preferred a Macdonalds double sausage and egg to be honest probably hotter. The shower was luke warm and floor slippy with a tiny hand towel size bath mat that you can't access with the door as you have to open the door to the bathroom so life's the bath mat up once you access the shower. Just added to the rubbish chain of events from the coach trip to be honest. Oh and Acklams this hotel isn't made for coaches neither, the coach didn't have no access to the hotel car park so had to drive up the grassed area over the bollard to get us in to the door. So I hope the hotel charge you for damage to the grass verges!
