Merchants Hotel

1. The water in the shower wouldn't go down the sewer unless you flushed the toilet (!!!) 2. The walls are paper thin, so we could hear our next door nighbours at all hours. 3. There was a light-switch, but no light source connected to it. 4. There wasn't a phone in the room so we had to keep running to the reception desk in case anyone wanted us. 5. When we asked for extra blankets, they weren't brought to our room - we had to wait and carry everything up on our own. 6. No lift and many steps to climb. 7. Located on a very scary scary street - I wouldn't wander out there at night. 8. The "hotel" is old and tattered. The only good thing was the breakfast. But all in all, simply horrible. Stay away.

We stayed in this hotel for one night in April 2005, what a dump! The photos on the web site do not do tell the truth at all. We had 3 single rooms, one smelled of sweaty old men, one smelled as if someone had vomited in it, and the 3rd smelled of the kitchen vent from the cafe/bar below the hotel, as the kitchen vent vented right outside the window. Thank god for the night life of the city centre, it meant that none of us had any recolection of actually going to sleep in our rooms, nor worried about using their toilet facilities... My room had a shower.....and a real shower it was......I made sure I didn't wear my contact lenses when I needed to use it the morning after..in fact if it wasn't a morning after I wouldn't have used it. Breakfast was fascinating...chipped cups and glasses, dirty cutlery and thank go no cooked food... Don't go there, sleep rough in stead.

ok so it started with no one being helpful at all. sheets were dirty. no mirror in the room. there was 2 of us staying and given only one key, which proved a problem for my friend coming home at 6 am. no ported on duty to let him in, i wont tell you the rest. the room had been booked on a credit card, and hotel was ordered to debit card on their departure, but instead they ordered us pay the money as we left, which left us very tight for taxi to the airport. not very understanding, and not even worth the cheap price that we paid. they said it was close to old trafford as this was our reason for the trip, but we ended up spending most of our money on taxis. Never again. Manchester came up trumps but if i ever saw this hotel again it would be too soon- hence the title---------DONT DO IT!!!! I read the reviews on this before I went and said it couldnt be that bad, but it is.

Well what can i say? Ok so it's not the Ritz, but given that I and my friends wanted somewhere central and cheap it could have been worse. The owner couldnt have been more accomodating and yes, looking at it from the outside, we were expecting to have an interesting stay, but we were on a budget and i have certainly been to starred places which treated us worse and charged us more. For a budget holiday or a weekend away, its location is perfect, it was clean, was friendly... what more do you want for such prices? Dont expect a 5* hotel cause it isnt a 5* hotel. On the whole though, if your looking for somewhere to lay your head in the city centre, on a budget with breakfast included -you could choose many more places that wouldn't be as good. Give it a shot. I'm going back there in a few weeks - again for a weekend, and i wouldn't do that if the place was as bad as some of the people on here make it out to be.

the person from n.ireland who said the staff stop disguising themselves are you having a laugh. i sure aint staff,i have stayed at the hotel a few times,and think it,s great.i was amazed on the changes since i last stayed there, the new staff have improved the place, also where does the reviewer saying its powdered coffee get that 1 from, since when has nescafe or pg tips been powder,do all us viewers a favour and at least tell the truth n shame the devil. keep up the good work you workers ,the hotel is cool.

Hotel wise up! what a stinking hole i plead with any one who is considering booking the merchant hotel dont bother i would suggest walking the streets all night first . My hotel room was something out of the dark ages the shower which is in a glass box at the foot of your bed was disgusting if you used the sink dirty water would flow up along with peoples pubic hair !!! there was that much of it i could of made a wig out of it the room smelt of **** i have read other reviews which suggest there is nothing wrong with this dump i wish the owners would stop disguising themselfs as satisfied customers come on stop stealing peoples hard erned cash if you cant provide clean accomodation get out of the hotel trade .

This really was an experience worth remembering. Having travelled to Manchester on many occassions I was stunned at how terrible this alleged hotel was. Turn right past the bins just below the air conditioning units and your in the up the steep stairs(not wheelchair friendly at all), into what is alleged to be the recieption. Due to football at 3pm bags got dumped in the lounge, (3different types of seat made it the lounge) and left there. No secure storage at this dump. Couldn t believe the room when I got there. No light, staff suggested I don t close the curtains. The door of sink unit was lying beside the bed broken and the sink was dirty. Rail to hang clothes on. Hairs on the lower pillow which obviously hadn t been changed. For security I had been left a lump of wood to protect me, and so it went on. All in all it was something I ve never experienced before. Haven t stayed in Sashes hotel, l which was 100yds away, I regretted looking for a bargin at £40 quid. I ll pay the extra £10 the next time and keep away from Manchesters premier dump. PS Couldn t even face the thought of continential breakfast in this tip. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

stayed over a saturday evening, to watch football and sample the nightlife, with two friends. we all stayed in single rooms, which were the worst i have ever experienced. recently redecorated...i dont think so..!! the rooms were cramped and dirty. the shower in mine had not been cleaned, and there was a small sliver of hotel soap that had obviously been used by a previous guest...uck. there were no fresh soaps or shampoo anywhere, and the room looked out onto an alleyway with very loud airconditioning units about 10 feet away. breakfast was poor.... powered coffee..!!! ...come on..!!. staff couldn't even give advice about trams or buses..... in short... don't even think about it.

i recently stayed at the hotel for a couple of nights, during my stay i found that the staff was very freindly ,the rooms was very clean and comfortable.i payed £45 pn for a double en suite room which i found great value for money.<<<<would i stay again>>>>>>>>>> YES i would also recommend others to do so. where else can you get a better deal in manchester town centre for £45 .some hotels charge 3 times that, so who ever reads this view the merchants is the place to be.

I wish I'd found your reviews of this hotel before I booked! I phoned and was offered a single room with en-suite shower for £35, for a Saturday night in November 04. I phoned at lunchtime on the day to confirm I was still coming but couldn't check in until 11pm, and was told that was fine. I said I had a single en-suite but the guy couldn't find my name on the booking list. He said the manager would be in 'soon' and he'd sort it out and not to worry. At 11pm I checked in to find my room - bizarrely listed as 'Room Solarium 3'(!!) - had no lights working. The girl on duty brought 2 bulbs to put in which then worked OK, revealing a room with no en-suite shower or toilet, or indeed anything much at all! There was no sink in the room (making the coffee making stuff somewhat redundant, as the nearest sink was on the next floor and you had to go out to the main 'reception' area and in another door to go upstairs!) There was also no chair, no table except a tiny round very low table that just had room for the coffee making things, no bedside table, no light switch reachable from the bed, no curtains or blinds over the window, which was blacked out with paint, and no door handle (though you could see where one had been at some point!) The door did lock, but I certainly didn't feel safe. The window was wedged slightly open with a large lump of wood (complete with splinters) but I closed it to attempt to deaden the sound of generators just outside my window which successfully combined with the noise of drunks shouting in the alleyway outside to make sleeping difficult. There were random wires coming in through the window (one was just cut off without going anywhere, one seemed to be the TV aerial.) The TV was on the wall so high up I had to reach on tiptoe to switch it on, but that was a waste of time as they hadn't plugged the aerial in and with no chair to stand on I couldn't reach up high enough to attempt to plug it in. The window ledge was filthy, as was the floor (lots of sawdust from holes drilled in the wall which no-one had swept up!) No proper cupboard or drawers to put anything in (not that I wanted to!). I, too, wondered what it had been like BEFORE the upgrading... perhaps the same but without the nice Monet print on the wall or fake plant in a pot in one corner! There was a fitting on the wall which looked like a dispenser for that green cardboard paper stuff you dry your hands with in public toilets. Empty of course. Thankfully the bed appeared to be clean, at least. There was a toilet on my floor, but nowhere to wash your hands and I had to go out and up a floor to the shower room, which had one dirty piece of soap on the sink unit, covered in someone else's hair. Disgusting! I did complain to the girl and asked for another room. There wasn't one and at 11.30 at night there wasn't much I could do. She said she had no authority to refund the credit card payment and the manager would talk to me in the morning. Big surprise in the morning I was told the manager hadn't been able to come in (though I think the woman skulking in the back room was she!) and I'm about to write to her asking for a refund. And yes, for £27/£30 I DO expect more than this and don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that no-one in their right mind EVER thinks of booking at this appalling hotel.