Review: the new Holiday Inn Manchester City Centre hotel

This is my review of the new Holiday Inn Manchester City Centre hotel.

Etihad invited me to Manchester recently for a conference at the Etihad Stadium.  We chose the Holiday Inn in the city centre for my stay in order to check out this new ‘next generation’ property.

We paid for the hotel in cash (not literally, obviously, as that would have involved a few hundred credit card miles going to waste!) and neither Etihad or IHG was involved in organising the stay.

Where is the Holiday Inn Manchester City Centre?

The new Holiday Inn Manchester City Centre is about a 5 minute walk from Manchester Piccadilly station where my Virgin train arrived.  Take the Piccadilly Station Approach exit, walk over the bridge and the hotel is right opposite that red building at the far back in the picture below.

Check-in

The reception area is very bright and welcoming and the check-in process was very quick.  You need your keycard to activate the lift – this didn’t work the first time I tried so I had to get back and get my keycards redone.

Room

Apologies for the slightly dark pictures. I arrived quite late and this is as good as the pictures got.

The room design was much nicer than the boring new Holiday Inn in Brooklyn which I reviewed here.  That was also meant to be a ‘next generation’ Holiday Inn but the trendy design did not go any further than the lobby.

You can still see that this room is a Holiday Inn property, but the dash of colour on the bed and the colour blocked curtains gave the room a rather inviting touch.

The bed was very comfortable and like all Holiday Inn hotels you can order pillows from a ‘pillow menu’ if the ones provided are not right for you.

The armchair doesn’t look very pretty but was incredibly comfortable.

The desk was a good size with sockets and a mirror – not too sure about why you need a mirror at the desk unless this was actually a dressing table …

WiFi was free and fast enough to stream Netflix (Netflix should start paying me for mentioning them all the time as good in-room entertainment, right?)

The safe and hair dryer are in the chest under the TV. The wardrobe is next to the bed.

There was no coffee machine, but a kettle with tea and instant coffee.

Still and sparkling water was free.

Bathroom

The bathroom was a good size with a bathtub/shower.

The toiletries were by Envoque.

Breakfast

I booked a room rate which included breakfast and I forgot to check the price if you paid separately.  Someone has clearly put some thought into how the food should be displayed:

There was a good selection of hot and continental options:

…. and different juices.

The Holiday Inn Manchester City Centre breakfast room had lots of design elements like this shelves wall. It looks a bit random and chaotic but for some weird reason I think it works.

Here is another picture of the restaurant / bar. At the far left behind the pillar is a Starbucks.

Conclusion

The new Holiday Inn Manchester City Centre is a good city hotel in a great location.  It is minutes from Piccadilly station – you can easily walk from there – and all the city centre shopping destinations are around the corner.

As I didn’t get to spend too much time at the hotel, I didn’t check out the gym which was labeled a mini gym – I assume it has got about 3 -4 machines and some yoga mats. I liked the room, the bed was comfortable and breakfast was good, and I’d definitely stay there again.

(If you are heading to Manchester for an event at the Etihad Stadium, you can take an Uber from the hotel for just £4.)

As an IHG Rewards Club redemption, you will need 30,000 points per night.  As a new hotel it is still relatively cheap as it tries to build market share and, for me, it was a better deal to pay £90 cash.

The official hotel website is here.

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IHG One Rewards update – April 2024:

Get bonus points: IHG One Rewards is offering 2,000 bonus points for every two cash nights you stay (not necessarily consecutive) between 1st April and 31st May 2024. You can read our full article here and you can register here.

New to IHG One Rewards?  Read our overview of IHG One Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG One Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG One Rewards points, you can buy them here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from IHG and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.