Overview

We stayed in this hotel in February 2018 ahead of catching an early flight. The last trip we made from Manchester Airport we stayed in the nearby Holiday Inn Express; we won’t make that mistake again. We are big fans of Premier Inn, they are generally cheap and cheerful, and the accessible bathrooms with roll-in showers are ideal for my wife’s needs, often much better than you find in so-called luxury hotels. The room we were put in was on the top floor at one end of the hotel; that was ideal as we didn’t suffer with noise disturbance from outside. It was though a fair distance from the elevators, which may be a problem for disabled guests who don’t use a wheelchair. The room was a good size and there was plenty of floor space, especially either side of the bed; my wife had no problem whatsoever manoeuvring her wheelchair. It pleased us that the old-style zip and lock beds, which can be uncomfortable in the middle without a mattress topper, had been replaced with a queen size bed; the mattress was really comfortable. The room was decorated in the old colour scheme but the desk and wardrobe unit looked fairly new; the TV was larger than is found in the old style rooms but not as big as you would find in the newly refurbished rooms. There were a sufficient number of power sockets in the room. The sealed windows and blackout curtains, together with the extremely comfortable bed and efficient heating / air-conditioning unit made for a very good night’s sleep. We did not eat at the hotel as we had an early check-in for our flight. The next time we choose to stay the night before a flight from Manchester we would have no hesitation in using this hotel again.

Transport & Parking

There is chargeable parking at this hotel with plenty of disabled bays, but when we checked in that was waived; my wife is a blue badge holder. Take note IHG! The drive to Terminal 1 only took less than five minutes.

Access

Good level access from car park to room.

Toilets

The accessible bathroom was a good size and, despite it having a hinged door rather than a sliding one, access to it was easy for my wife due to the large amount of floor space just outside it, and the door opening to almost 180 degrees. There were plenty of grab bars. The bathroom had a shower type we had not seen in a Premier Inn bathroom before; rather than it being of the traditional wet-room style, there was a sunken shower tray with a grilled covering and low-level hinged screen doors enclosing it (see photos). The most obvious benefit being that water did not go all over the bathroom. As is common with most other Premier Inn rooms we have stayed in, the thermostatic shower was easy to control, the temperature was constant, and the water pressure was very good. We didn’t’ use the accessible toilets in the public areas.

Staff

We only encountered he reception staff who were welcoming and accommodating.

Photos