Arora International Manchester Hotel

We stayed at the Arora Fri 24 to Sun 26 June 2005. After having spent two nights at the Ibis, Charles' street, entering our room at Arora was like entering Heaven! Read the review on Ibis if you're interested. The rooms were large and modern, with two queen size beds - soft and comfortable. Because I have a minor back problem my back will hurt if I sleep in a too hard bed or in a too soft bed, but Arora's bed was perfect! And since we are Norwegians we especially loved the duvets (not too fond of sheet/blanket bedding). The room also contained chairs, a desk with broad band connection (10 pounds/24 hour), drawers, TV, coffe/tea making facilities, hairdryer, wardrobe with iron and ironingboard, safe and a small refrigderiator for your own drinks/food (you could request it to be filled with minibar contents). The bathroom was also large and modern, with WC, sink, a bathtub and "heating rods" for faster drying towles. The AC worked fine, we had nice temperature even though it was quite warm outside, but the fan regulation didn't seem to work (it sounded the alike even when I tried to set it on "OFF"). We didn't see much of the restaurant, because we missed breakfast the first morning (it ends at 10 am...). The next morning we didn't have much time for breakfast, so we hurried just eating bread with cheese. It seemed to be much to choose from a menu, but since we were so short of time we didn't try anything. There were also warm food at the buffet, sausages, beans and things like that. We stayed the two first nights at the Ibis because it was so close to UMIST, but we discovered the distance from Arora to UMIST is short enough (10 minutes walk). It is actually near to everything (except Old Trafford), Manchester centre is quite compact. So if we ever go to Manchester again (together), we would definitely stay at the Arora. Just one more comment: If you're ordering a room through Arora's website, you might get the most expensive rate of all the nights you intend to stay. We spent two nights, search for only the first night displayed the cheapest rate at 79 pounds, search for only the second night gave 99 pounds. You should think that a search for both nights together would give a total of 178 pounds, but it became 198 pounds. This I also found with many of the hotel booking websites, except laterooms.

As an infrequent traveller to Manchester, and having stayed in some real dives masquerading as business hotels there, I arrived at the Arora with a sense of trepidation. This was increased as I approached the rather trendy minimalist reception/check in desk. I needn't have fretted. The room was huge with two double beds (somewhat excessive for a single traveller, unless there are night time customs in Manchester that I am not aware of), and fitted out in a superior Ikea meets Habitat style. The bathroom was superb and large with a great bath/shower and modern appliances that worked. Sadly I had no time to visit the Obsidian Restaurant in person, but ordered a starter and main course with wine as room service. The food was frankly exceptional, and way above standard room service offerings of even accomplished hotels with well known restaurants. I can vouch for the scallops followed by the duck confit! Having slept soundly, I had time for an excellent cooked breakfast at which I managed to spill most of the blueberries over my fresh white shirt. The staff have a sense of humour-I was offered a bib!

After reading trip advisor we changed our previous hotel to the Arora. We have just visited for the Great Manachester run, and the hotel itself is in a fantastic central position - but not to close to any noisy streets. The staff were all very friendly and professional. The room itself was a good size, lovely deep bath and the beds are to die for - really soft and comfy. The reception area is a bit minimal, no bar etc., but the standard for everything else means you can so live without that. The restaurant - Obsidian, was fab too, great atmosphere, good menu and superb cocktails at the bar. We will definately stay at the Arora again and book the restaurant - which we recommend if you're going at weekends. Thanks Trip Advisor for changing our minds!

I have just returned from a one night stay at the Arora in Manchester. We booked a superior room on latebeds but were upgraded to a premier room on arrival........good start!! The room was spacious and lovely and clean. The Obsidian bar was really funky but the prices were high, great cocktails be prepared to pay!! The only down side was the parking we parked in the Plaza car park as it was nearby but it wasn't the reduced rate one suggested by the hotel (we couldn't find it!!) hence it was quite expensive £14 for 24 hours.

Got an excellent rate through laterooms.com (£59). Bizarrely told on check-in that someone would be in trouble for offering that rate as it was SO good (as he pointed to the £175 rack rate!) Incidentally, this £59 rate was also available on arora's own website! ---------- Anyway, I digress. Efficient check in. Clean and 'minimalist' hotel room. Very comfortable big bed, nice linen. Choice of feather or synthetic pillows. Air-conditioning/TV/Tea and Coffee facils/ Decent hairdryer. Very clean. Shower a bit disappointing - intelligence test in terms of getting it to work - shower itself not high enough up - ie you have to bend over to put head under (unless you are around 4 ft 6in or shorter). Toiletries a bit disappointing and rather mean (one very small shower gel/shampoo between two - but did get a shower cap (does anyone ever use these?) Overall very pleasant room. Would recommend and would stay again. Did not try the food. China Town literally 1 minute away. Shopping about 5 minutes away. Bars nearby. Didn't see Cliff.

Stayed here for 1 night this weekend, only 1 word to describe it, excellent. Service great, room immaculate, although on the small side, the bar and restaurant (we only had breakfast) very good as well. It was very busy in the bar ( but never waited to be served) with a number of celebs in there too, seems to be the place to go. Will definitely stay there again and probably eat dinner there as well, (we ate at Lounge 10 and will not go there again).

Loved this hotel, I stayed after seeing the reviews here and was not dissapointed. The location is excellent. The place is spotless the reception staff actually want to help!!! unique in english hotels! and the restaurant is the best in the city. Do yourself a favour stay at the Arora.

had a fantastic time at this hotel room was lovely, beautifully decorated and with electric beds. Had a corner room over looking an art gallery, and an alleyway, which was a little dark, but then are you booking into the hotel to look out of the window or enjoy the room? Breakfast left a lot to desire, barely able to offer what was on the menu, and definately not worth the money, but then the waitress did say they were having a bad day...

The Arora is really fresh and modern and spankingly clean. Yet after reading such amazing reviews I was expecting it to have a bit more lustre and it to be something really special. I wasn't disappointed by it, it was just not as high quality as I had hoped. Though the beds were amazing! The downstairs bar wass heaving with pseudo trendies but that was the only real downside. Overall it was an enjoyable comfortable stay.

We stayed here for one night a few days ago, with our teenage daughter and her friend. We booked very late and got our two rooms for £75 each (one double, one twin - which had two double beds), which was very good value. The double room was quite small, although very tasteful and spotlessly clean; there was no spare pillow or blanket and only one handtowel. Toiletries were in rather short supply too. However, I called reception and the extra items I requested were brought up almost immediately. The fridge in the room was a good idea except that it wasn't really cold enough to be useful. The twin room was much bigger, and also seemed to have far more toiletries, which were also of better quality than in the double. The only downside to this room? It was Cliff Richard - themed, with items from his 'Heathcliff' musical including one of his costumes in a frame on the wall! Again, to be fair, the hotel immediately offered an alternative when I mentioned this might not be to two teenagers' taste (although they decided to keep the room as they found it amusing!). The only place where the hotel fell down was what you might term 'concierge' services. I had to collect the girls from a concert they were attending and as it was a Saturday night I asked the hotel to book a taxi for me an hour and a half in advance; I also asked them if there was a restaurant nearby that would still be serving at 11.30pm and if so would they book a table for three. The member of staff assured me he would arrange the taxi and said he would have to 'phone round for a restaurant and he would let me know if he found anywhere (I found this surprising as the hotel is right opposite Chinatown). I waited in my room and heard nothing: five minutes after the taxi was due I called downstairs to chase it and it was clear that it had not been ordered (it seemed there had been a change in the member of staff on duty - the person I spoke to was completely unaware of my earlier request) . I went downstairs and had to wait a further fifteen minutes until the taxi appeared. Meanwhile when I enquired regarding the restaurant, the staff member there now looked confused and said he didn't understand why I had been told that as the two restaurants alongside the hotel were always open until after midnight and a reservation wouldn't be required! The following morning when I asked someone at the desk to show me on a map where a particular address was it took her ten minutes looking on the internet before she apologised and said she couldn't locate it precisely - I asked if the desk had access to a simple A-Z street guide which I could glance at but she looked blank - presumably they don't have one. Overall this is a good place to stay if your primary interest is a central location and a pleasant, tasteful room, especially if you get such a good rate as we did: but equip yourself with plenty of details of the city so that you don't have to rely on the hotel's advice and assistance as it is patchy at best!