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Hyatt gains two Manchester Oxford Road hotels from IHG on 10th January

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As we reported back in September, Hyatt is opening two hotels in Manchester next year.

These are NOT new hotels.  They are rebrandings of the brand new Crowne Plaza Manchester Oxford Road and the brand new Staybridge Suites.

The Crowne Plaza Manchester Oxford Road, which we reviewed here, will become a 212-room Hyatt Regency hotel.  Staybridge Suites Manchester Oxford Road, which we reviewed here, will become a 116-room Hyatt House extended stay property.

Crowne Plaza Manchester to become a Hyatt Regency

The hotels are located in the University Quarter, a 10-minute walk from the city centre and close to Manchester Oxford Road station.  Hyatt’s presence outside London is currently woeful, if you exclude the ‘Small Luxury Hotels’ affiliates, with their only hotel being the Hyatt Regency in Birmingham.   This is a welcome expansion.

Both hotels are now showing on hyatt.com for bookings from Friday 10th January.  This is a surprisingly quick turnaround – just four months from the announcement – which implies that relations between the owners and IHG have broken down badly or that both parties have agreed that Manchester simply has too many upper scale IHG hotels these days.

World of Hyatt update – April 2024:

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Category

IHG One Rewards, World of Hyatt

Comments (123)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • jc says:
    11 Dec11 December 10:19

    OT – (this is either an announcement or a request for someone to correct me, but as far as I can tell) starting Sunday there will no longer be any FX fees at all on EU/euro payments, regardless of card. EU regs.

    • KevMc says:
      11 Dec11 December 10:46

      Where have you seen this? I would be shocked if it was implemented at such short notice having not heard anything about it previously (although it is an excellent idea if true).

    • TGLoyalty says:
      11 Dec11 December 10:58

      I might be wrong but I thought this was a reduction in cross border fees for retailers not customers?

    • jc says:
      11 Dec11 December 12:53

      @KevMc @TGLoyalty

      I think the legalese is here, it’s been planned for some time – http://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2019/518/adopted

      But I learnt it from my VS Card statement –

      Important information about using your card abroad

      From 15 December 2019, we’re changing how you’re charged when you use your card or withdraw cash in any of the 31 countries of the European Economic Area (EEA). When you pay for something in Euros, Swedish Kronor or Romanian Lei, we won’t charge you a Non-Sterling Transaction Fee.

      When you take money out in those currencies from a cash machine in the EEA, you won’t have to pay a Non-Sterling Transaction Fee either – but you will still need to pay a Cash Advance fee.

      • stevenhp1987 says:
        11 Dec11 December 14:05

        Odd, nothing in my VS Reward+ statement…

        Odd statement to suggest all EEA countries will be FX free but only list some of the currencies within it.

        Can’t find this change on the Virgin Money website either.

        Would be nice to use my Amex Gold in the EEA FX free…

      • TGLoyalty says:
        11 Dec11 December 15:00

        but it doesn’t say 0% fx fees – some cards used to charge a flat fee for using a foreign currency plus a fx fee

        • jc says:
          11 Dec11 December 15:20

          I wondered that too, but on the VS card the only FX fee is a 2.99% fee called the Non Sterling Transaction Fee, which is the one they’ve said they’re removing for EEA/€

  • Colin MacKinnon says:
    11 Dec11 December 10:41

    OT. Can anyone recommend a throwaway mobile SIM?

    Off on holiday for a month and don’t want to take my own phone with all its money apps etc.

    But need a phone to meet up with the taxi at the airport on the way back!

    So a cheap one-off sim in an old phone would do the trick – but most seem to be locked to auto renew/top-ups

    • jc says:
      11 Dec11 December 10:45

      What do you mean locked to auto renew / topups? Walk into any supermarket or corner shop or mobile shop or network website and they’ll have SIMs that are fine for what you need. Either free or £1, plus a one-off topup

    • BigSi says:
      11 Dec11 December 10:48

      Just get a free pay as you go SIM, you only need to load it once. 3 are good and the roaming packs include lots of countries (not just EU).

      • In the new lounge Edinburgh says:
        11 Dec11 December 12:30

        But not 4G roaming which is a big weakness

        • Rhys says:
          11 Dec11 December 12:44

          Not sure this is the case any more – they seem to have transitioned to 4G roaming, at least on my recent trips

    • Andrew says:
      11 Dec11 December 10:51

      So just a basic UK burner sim?

      50p from your nearest Asda. They are on the double-E network so should work with any of their old locked phones or any unlocked phone.

      Can stick a £5 non-recurring for 30 days of 200 minutes, 500mb and do it in store if you want to pay cash.

      • RussellH says:
        11 Dec11 December 21:18

        A bit late in the day, but I have just seen this. Asda SIMs do not work in phones locked to Orange / EE, even though ASDA uses the EE network.
        I used an ASDA SIM for years, until I finally had to accept that Orange/EE was never going to work inside the house reliably enough for all the SMS now received from banks etc. The ASDA only ever worked in unlocked phones, not in anything locked to Orange/EE.

    • John says:
      11 Dec11 December 11:20

      Wouldn’t you get a Sim in the country of your holiday, since you don’t want to use your existing UK number anyway?

      • Shoestring says:
        11 Dec11 December 11:51

        if you can use roaming, I’d advise to go for one of the IDMobile SIM only deals, they are excellent value – they’re on a contract but on 30 days’ notice and SIMs arrive with free next day delivery https://www.idmobile.co.uk/shop/plans/sim-only-deals – if you can’t use roaming, other international calls are dirt cheap as well

        my son’s on 2GB/ 500mins (£4/ month) and my daughter was moaning about data so is on 4GB/ unlimited mins (£8/ month BF deal) – texts are unlimited – you can switch on the ‘not to exceed £8/ month etc’ control so no unwelcome bills & easy to monitor usage

        • Shoestring says:
          11 Dec11 December 11:53

          forgot to add – and if you see a cheaper IDMobile deal, you can upgrade to the new deal on the phone in a couple of minutes

    • Lady London says:
      11 Dec11 December 14:00

      Asda (mvno uses EE network) lets you start with £1 top up from a credit/debit card. &0p for the card in-store or they send for free.

      • Shoestring says:
        11 Dec11 December 14:09

        but you’re much better off paying a couple of £s more (£5 or so) and getting a proper minutes & data deal, see my IDMobile examples – which are immediately cancellable ie 30 days only if you wish, for a proper allowance

        • Shoestring says:
          11 Dec11 December 14:11

          plus unused data gets rolled over 1 month

        • Lady London says:
          11 Dec11 December 14:18

          not his need. IDMobile runs on Three and between them I agree with you they have the best deals/ one off SIM cards preloaded/unloaded email etc. All of which are very useful if you dont want to come home to a huge excess data charge for roaming in your contract phone.

          But I’ve interpreted OP’s use as a need for a one-off.

      • Karen Brown says:
        11 Dec11 December 14:12

        *50p in-store, fyi the one I had sent was emailed by Asda to have arrived in the post but it never came so I think it got stolen. So had to set foot in an Asda to get one and pay the 50p 🙂

    • Lady London says:
      11 Dec11 December 14:07

      Asda. £1 topups from a card.
      Free online or 50p in Asda.
      The rest with very few exceptions are £10 top-up before they work.
      I’ve just finished looking at this myself,my reason different than yours, above was my best find.

      Occasionally you can find something for this type of need on eBay or Amazon or sometimes the sites we don’t talk about much here.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      11 Dec11 December 15:19

      maybe a daft question but why cant you put your sim in the old phone?

      money apps are on the phone not the sim. Also ive learnt being without your home number for a while can leave you open to missing banking etc texts

      • Colin MacKinnon says:
        12 Dec12 December 11:20

        Hi all,

        Thanks – I am off to Asda.

        I don’t want to use a phone (there is a fantastic sense of relief at leaving the phone behind and heading off for four weeks!) but they are becoming unavoidable for travel nowadays

        So I need a phone to call the taxi when we arrive back in the UK, and potentially, to contact people in Zurich, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa should we REALLY have to. Some people mentioned above charge £6 a minute!

        In Tanzania and SA will get a local sim for some data: Google maps and HfP ! Usually just use wi-fi. And will load Uber app for taxis and airline apps for flights and flight updates.

    • the_real_a says:
      11 Dec11 December 16:51

      GiffGaff is my choice. £20 gets you 20gb in Europe (40gb total) unlimited calls, and unlimited texts at 4g. No contract, and 99p sim from the supermarket.

      • the_real_a says:
        11 Dec11 December 16:52

        Data and calls packs are good for 30 days. If you run out you can just buy another mid month and start afresh.

      • Shoestring says:
        11 Dec11 December 17:11

        £20 fgets you 50GB with unlimited mins with IDMobile – but entirely up to you 🙂

  • Delbert says:
    11 Dec11 December 10:56

    Help, please!

    We are staying at the new Hilton Garden Inn at T2 tomorrow night, though have a two-fold issue to overcome.

    #1. I have the spend £250 get £50 back saved to my Amex Gold. But the offer excludes online payments and only valid for checkout spend. It’s flexible rate booking and not checked in yet. How do I stop the balance being taken automatically? Or am I overthinking this.

    #2. The room rate is £249 so does buying a cold beer at the bar on said Amex Gold count towards the total?

    BTW, we’re at the Conrad Bangkok on the double points promo tonight and comes highly recommended from us.

    Many thanks in advance.

    • KevMc says:
      11 Dec11 December 11:02

      Charge food/drink to your room and pay the total amount when you check out

      • Delbert says:
        11 Dec11 December 11:23

        Thanks, KevMc.

        So they won’t take the payment automatically as my Amex is obviously attached to the reservation?

    • John says:
      11 Dec11 December 11:20

      If it’s a flexible rate you pay on checkout…

    • TokyoFan says:
      11 Dec11 December 11:59

      For future reference, “the offer excludes online payments and only valid for checkout spend.” is entirely untrue, regardless of what it says in the terms. Advance bookings online have always counted for me, as have multiple transactions (as long as cumulative spend is £250+)

    • Travel Strong says:
      11 Dec11 December 12:13

      Also just paying at the bar on the card will also trigger it. Does not need to be charged to room… do not even need to have a room! All the payments come through as a Hilton transaction, and count towards cumulative spend.

    • Brasov says:
      11 Dec11 December 12:19

      £249 for a Garden Inn is far too much.

      Heathrow hotels are usually the among cheapest in the London area and well under £100

      • The Savage Squirrel says:
        11 Dec11 December 13:26

        Not sure how you can comment unfavourably on someone else’s hotel booking when you don’t know the details. For all you know they may have 3 suites booked for that price….

        • Rob says:
          11 Dec11 December 13:33

          I think you can safely assume if the HGI is £249 then everything else is very similar.

        • Travel Strong says:
          11 Dec11 December 15:30

          The new T2 HGI is now regularly priced at a premium, which is unfortunate as I really enjoyed my stay there in the opening days at £70-80 per night, but can’t justify the £107++ minimum now. For the OP’s night,
          1 x LHR T2 HGI is indeed ~£250, whilst the other 4 LHR hiltons are less than half the price.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            11 Dec11 December 17:54

            Bonkers I’d save £125 and head to CP T4

          • Rob says:
            11 Dec11 December 20:24

            Same owners – Arora.

          • Delbert says:
            12 Dec12 December 23:05

            I totally agree that the price is steep but the Amex £50 rebate and double points promotion tempers it slightly.

            What I will say is that we flew BKK-ZRH-LHR today and sure you all appreciate it’s one hell of a journey and the convenience of walking through the T2 car park to the front door is most welcome at the end of a marathon day.

            We did exactly the same trip last May but stayed at the Hilton T4 but the additional train and walk (accompanied by a very groggy wife) just added to the overall misery.

            Anyway, first time here at Hilton T2 and, yes, very convenient but a little basic but that’s a Garden Inn for you.

  • John says:
    11 Dec11 December 12:57

    Michael O’Leary’s thoughts:

    https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/michael-o-leary-objects-to-f-king-dutch-people-telling-us-to-pay-more-taxes-1.4111084

    • Lady London says:
      11 Dec11 December 13:31

      I am now a Michael O’Leary fan. I wasn’t before.

      Rubbish like these proposals is representative of why so many voted to leave the EU.

      • Anna says:
        11 Dec11 December 16:23

        Well said LL, I think here in the UK we pay enough tax on flying – considerably more than the Irish and the Dutch anyway!

      • Sandgrounder says:
        11 Dec11 December 17:01

        Countering a sound environmental argument with base racism is certainly typical of many of those who voted to leave the EU.

        • Anna says:
          11 Dec11 December 19:42

          The post was about discrepancies in taxation on air travel! Why is it that Remainers can only rationalise the referendum result by labelling anyone who voted differently as racist?

          • Doug M says:
            11 Dec11 December 20:34

            I can’t think of one person I’ve discussed it with that ultimately had any reason beyond racism. Sure they dress it up, but the more you ask the more it becomes about racism.

          • Sandgrounder says:
            11 Dec11 December 21:26

            You don’t know how I voted or if I did at all. Perhaps I am not even resident in the UK. Using a crude sexual swear word to describe a whole race of people is racist, full stop. Dutch, black, Asian, it doesn’t matter. Stating that you are now a fan of a person after they make a racist statement, well, you can join up the dots however you like.

          • Lady London says:
            12 Dec12 December 14:58

            Erm… It wasn’t a racist comment. He didn’t just mean the Dutch. There’s a kind of British/Irish humour in this. Sorry if non-UK/Irish people or perhaps younger people who seem to be excessively inculcated into political correctness missed this and did not take Michael O’Leary’s statement as a slightly dry humour way of making a serious wider point.

          • Lady London says:
            12 Dec12 December 15:00

            PS I’m a Remainer

      • RussellH says:
        11 Dec11 December 17:37

        There is a lot of sense being talked there.

        What is really needed, though, is an end to the ridiculous idea that flying is still a young industry trying to find its feet, that needs tax breaks in order to survive. This being the reason for there being no VAT on most flights.

        But I do not see many here agreeing with the last bit of his comments:

        ““Aviation tax […]is just a tax grab by governments” in favour of rich people. One way of addressing the problem, he said, was to ban business and first classes which were a grossly inefficient use of space […].”

  • Martha says:
    11 Dec11 December 13:43

    OT
    on any non FX card fees, do they get you on the currency conversion rate?
    Are some cards better than others?
    I’m looking at the Capital On Tap but wondering if they will burn me on exchange rate.

    • Rhys says:
      11 Dec11 December 13:46

      Conversion rate is set by Mastercard / Visa, and Mastercard typically has a better rate than Visa, I believe

  • Shoestring says:
    11 Dec11 December 14:23

    Iberia running +50% Avios promo again! 300.000 Avios for €3,601 = £3,032

    Not doing the math on a calculator as I can see it in my head! – thanks to GBP strengthening…

    …WE’RE NOW ON 1p/ AVIOS TO BUY 300K FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR ARMCHAIR 🙂

    • Shoestring says:
      11 Dec11 December 14:33

      150K is also 1p

      75K is 1.05p (£788)

      • Shoestring says:
        11 Dec11 December 14:42

        any buyers need to take a view on the election tomorrow and the reaction of GBP vs EUR when the result (a) seems predictable (say, tomorrow morning/ afternoon) & (b) becomes solid fact (early morning on 13th)

        could be higher in anticipation rather than after the fact

        will the fear of a hung parliament weigh on the £?

        will GBP dip – even with a Conservative victory as that’s already in the price?

        would any dip be followed by renewed strengthening of GBP in the coming days?

        deadline to buy the Avios is 20th December

        • Brasov says:
          11 Dec11 December 18:12

          Thanks Harry, if you start your own blog / facebook page / tiktok account, I will definitely follow you.
          (I’ll still read Rob and Anika’s first of course though).

          • BJ says:
            11 Dec11 December 19:36

            There is the economist Canada deal at 0.8ppa, don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out how to get 75k+ avios from that.

          • Harry T says:
            11 Dec11 December 21:22

            @BJ does the Economist subscription offer work if you use a different name and address? Suppose I could sign my partner up too.

      • Brasov says:
        11 Dec11 December 18:13

        That said, 84% of HfP readers have a -90,000 Iberia balance so can’t use this deal.

        • Russ says:
          11 Dec11 December 20:22

          How did you get to 84%?

          Not you is it Dianne???

          • Brasov says:
            12 Dec12 December 00:01

            Based on an admittedly small sample of the HfP readers I know 🙂

            Tips would be welcome on how to reset the negative balance by the way

          • Lady London says:
            12 Dec12 December 15:10

            On resetting the -90k exercising your GDPR rights has been reported to work.

            Otherwise I suppose you could wait the three years without activity on the account that would mean all your points get automatically expired and taken away from you. Should work, if things are fair, for negative balances as well as positive ones!

    • Secret Squirrel says:
      11 Dec11 December 16:30

      Don’t expect these avios quickly if your looking to book a flight, I’m on 3.5 weeks waiting and still not credited! 😠

  • Fred S says:
    11 Dec11 December 16:15

    O/T: Spire Elite & IC Ambassador member with a refundable IC reservation using IHG CC Free Night, when viewing reservation there’s a code, “6C”, under Special Requests. Does anyone know what that means?

  • Anna says:
    11 Dec11 December 16:36

    OT – just had a very pleasant stay at the Hilton Vienna Plaza. As gold we got a room upgrade, welcome gift and the breakfast included the buffet (including sparkling wine and smoked salmon) and anything you wanted from the a la carte – I can recommend the eggs benedict! Extremely comfortable beds and very quiet given that it’s fairly central, and within walking distance of several Christmas markets.

    Vienna airport is also a very civilised experience – we were at the hotel within an hour of landing. On the way back we used the very efficient City Airport train which costs 12 euros and takes 16 minutes!

    • Dave says:
      11 Dec11 December 18:07

      We stayed there in the summer, nice hotel. We managed to pay 20 euro per night to upgrade the basic room, then got the complimentary gold upgrade to an exec with lounge access.

    • Louise says:
      11 Dec11 December 22:22

      Thanks Anna we are off there tomo!

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