Britannia Country House Hotel

Have stayed there several times over the last 5 years or so , attracted by their stay and park offers (stay park your car cheap on site). The Executive rooms are really nice, but the standard rooms are quite small and can be noisy from swimming pool pumps, external fan units etc. The hotel used to run a mini bus + trailer service to carry guests to and from the airport. I guess it must have cost them quite a lot of business when one of these crashed on the way to the airport, killing the driver and several passengers. Now the hotel has a contract with a coach company to take passengers to and from the airport ... probably safer, but it's scheduled to run HOURLY - that is when it runs at all (note, no bus means you pay for your own taxi, apx £10) The hotel does have a carvery resteraunt - very basic rost beef and somethging else, This used to be OK but on the previous trip they managed to switch the brown chilli soup (can't remember what they called it) with the gravy. I forgave them that as just a glitch - but on my trip Nov 04, the beef was poor quality and was only edible because it had been cooked so long it fell apart, the restaraunt staff were too few and the manageress was surley ... she even asked me to sign an blank bill for the meal because there was no-one on the resteraunt checkout to do the details (and was annoyed when I didn't). It's a great shame - BCH was nice once (or perhaps my expectations have changed and they no longer meet them). If you do book here - * get an executive room, * find somewhere else to eat (there must be some nice pubs nearby) * don't be suprised if you end up paying for your own transport to and from the airport.

My partner and I stayed overnight in this hotel on Christmas Eve 2003. Here is an account of our entire stay at the Hotel. My partner and I arrived between 8.00 and 9.00pm on Christmas Eve after I drove a 360 mile journey from Aberdeen. I had pre-booked 1 nights stay at the hotel and 14 days Parking on the internet, for which I paid, what I thought was a reasonable, £80. Our first impression of the hotel was the parking facilities whilst driving up to the hotel. The parking facilities leave a lot to be desired for those customers who do not possess all-terrain vehicles. We were fortunate enough to find a parking space on solid ground by the kerbside near the front door. This was after seeking help from one of the parking attendants (who was very helpful, I might add). It appeared that a large number of the more unlucky customers were expected to park in the mud (which is what had become of the grassy areas around the hotel). One customer needed to be towed out with a rope! Upon arriving at reception we were given a key to our room (Room 202) by a receptionist. Judging by the receptionist's general attitude and reluctance to volunteer any information about the hotel, she appeared to be working that Christmas Eve with the intention to provide nothing but the bare minimum level of service required in her job description, if even that! Having not been informed of the location of our room, we entered the lift opposite the reception desk (with 40 kg of baggage) and alighted on the 2nd floor. We did this under the (normally reasonable) assumption that we would find room 202 the 2nd floor. Having dragged our baggage from the lift we walked along the hallway to find that there was no room 202. We dragged the 40 kg of baggage back to the lift and downstairs again to reception. When I asked at reception we were told Room 202 was on the 2nd floor in another part of the hotel, past the bar. We then set off once again and dragged our 40 kg of baggage to the lift and then out of the lift to room 202. Upon entering room 202, there was a heavy smell of cigarette smoke and the room was generally pretty filthy with used hankies littered on the floor. My partner suffers from asthma, so there was no question of accepting that room. I returned to reception to complain about the room (stating that it was generally dirty and obviously a smoking room) and asked for another non-smoking room. I was given a key to room 259. I returned to remove our baggage from room 202, dragged the baggage to the lift back to the ground floor. This was because we found that room 259 was on the 2nd floor in, yet another, section of the hotel. Having finally arrived at room 259, we entered it to find that there was still a distinct smell of cigarette smoke in the room and the room was generally pretty grubby and sub-standard. Rather than describe the poor quality of the room we stayed in, I took photographs of it (attached below) which speak for themselves. (I can only assume that there is no such thing as a non-smoking room at this hotel!) Having driven a long journey, compounded with the fact that it had taken an hour after arrival to get to that room, it was now 9.30 - 10.00pm on Christmas Eve so we reluctantly stayed the night in that room (my partner chose to sleep in her clothes because of the grubby nature of the blankets). Our flight on Christmas day was at 10.00pm with check in at 6.00pm. Despite checkout time being 11.00am, I decided to ask at reception if we could have the room till about 5.00pm. This was so that we could freshen up later in the day, prior to our 11 hour flight to India. I was told that, in order to do that, I would have to pay another night. I reluctantly accepted and paid another £58 for the extra 6 hours in the room. I thought that it being Christmas Day and the fact that we would not be using the room overnight might result in some sort of compromise on price but the receptionist was pretty black and white about it. Since we had slept-in that morning rather than get up early for breakfast, I asked the receptionist how I might make a reservation for lunch. She introduced me to a lady from the hotel restaurant who enquired in the restaurant for me. She then informed me that they were fully booked for lunch on Christmas Day and that she could not fit my partner and I in. I explained that I had not had breakfast and would be around all day until my check in at the airport at 6.00pm. Having explained this, I asked her if there was any way I could get food in the hotel that day. She said that there was nothing she could do but that there was a carvery buffet that night at 6.30pm (as she would have known, this was a half hour after my airport check-in!!) I asked the receptionist if there were any pubs locally, that she knew of, that would be serving lunch that day. She did ring a local pub for me but they were not serving lunch that day. We resigned ourselves to sitting around the hotel, hungry for the rest of Christmas day. Note that I did consider driving somewhere for food but thought better of it when I considered the prospect of being potentially left with a parking space in the mud upon returning to the hotel. We were picked up from the hotel by a Britannia shuttle bus at 6.00pm, delighted to leave it and arrive at the airport where we could finally get something to eat on Christmas day, albeit fast food. In conclusion I must say that, overall, our stay at Britannia Country House Hotel was the most unsatisfying hotel experience for us ever. I could never see myself staying there again, or recommending it to anyone I know. I am sure that any reasonable person would consider the quality of service we received well below the minimum standards one would expect of a significant hotel chain operating in today's hospitality industry. After all how many hotels have you stayed in where you paid for two night and got one, requested a non-smoking room and got a smoking (and filthy) one and couldn't even get any food to eat!

The staff were friendly although the first room we were given had no electricity and the telephone socket was attached to the phone as opposed as to the wall... and it didn't work ! Moved to a second room which was again basic but at least everything worked. We had a pizza in the restaurant in the evening and the food was very good and once again the staff were friendly! It's ok for a quick overnight nap before going to the airport (which takes about 8 mins to reach by car) but not for a longer stay!

At first impression the hotel and gardens is impressive, as is the enterance lobby. From there it goes downhill. The staff were not particulary helpful , there was no hot water, the room was too small, the furniture was tatty, there was no remote for the television and no information pack about the hotel functions, breakfast choices or any information. The car park was too busy and hectic as was the hotel and I had to walk past several drunks to get to my room in the evening. When I woke up and had a cold wet shave all I wanted to do was leave immeddiately and I certainly did'nt want breakfast there. It was far too overpriced and there is no way I'm going back there.

Disgusting little room that clearly hadn't been thoroughly cleaned for some time. Rude and unhelpful staff. Breakfast left a lot to be desired.

As hotels in manchester were very busy this was practically the only place I could get. This hotel is truly AWFUL. My rate was £75 and stated 'EXEC' on my charge card however i'm sure this cant be what the gave me. The room had two of the narrowest single beds I have ever seen. On closer inspection I noticed that the bathroom floor was filthy and there was a lot of dirt on the carpet also. Then I noticed the duvet which was literally disgusting. As I could not call reception (there are no instructions for the phone) I walked down and asked for the housekeeper who promptly arrived. He promised to replace the duvet and clean the floor and also told me that I should really request a room in a different part of the hotel. Later I returned to the room and found that most of the floor was still filthy and the new duvet was even worse than the previous one. This time they sent up the duty manager who could not defend the state of the room. This time a clean duvet was provided but I was just desperate to leave by that time. The room was also missing some of the standard equipment listed in their promotional material. As the hotel is quite isolated I ate in the hotel's pizza restaurant. I have to say that they food was quite good but the service was incredibly unprofessional and many guests waited an age to receive their meals - I saw a couple storm out of there having waited just too long. I stayed in the hotel midweek but reports I've heard indicate thats its really not the place to be at weekends with huge amounts of noise from its attached club and regular fighting in the hotel bar & reception. AVOID THIS ONE AT ALL COSTS IF YOU CAN!!!!

The worst hotel I have ever stayed at in my life. We arrived after flying in from Fuertaventura at 3.30 am. The hotel was full of Manchester United fans who were drinking and rowdy awaiting the Sunday game against Arsenel. We paid £70 for a double non smoking room. Our room was on the 2nd floor and the lift didn't work. We carried our suitcases up two flights of winding stairs and arrived at our smokey, damp, dirty and tiny room which overlooked the rubbish bins. The cold tap did not work in the bathroom which was dirty with human hairs stuck to the tiled walls. The next morning we complained and were told that we should not have been put in that block, however, the duty manager later told us that this was incorrect and this was the room we had paid for. I will never stay at any Britannia hotels ever again. Thanks for a terrible end to a lovely holiday.

This must be the worst hotel in britain dont stay here, we stayed for a night in may before a flight to mexico 4 adults 2 children in 2 rooms. the staff are the rudest most unhelpful staff i have ever encountered and i travel extensively. we booked this hotel for somewhere convienient to park our car and for the transfer to and from the airport, when we arrived we were told in the morning we would have to take our car 20 miles to an alternative car park, a journey of approx 40 minutes including transfer to the airport despite us booking on site parking, we had an early morning flight with young children but still they would not accept that this was unacceptable, we asked for a refund which they refused as it would be better for us to stay at home and get a taxi in the morning than drive that far out of our way, and after asking to see the manager they kept us waiting for 1 1/2 hours in the reception with a young child of one who required feeding, the manager again was rude and unhelpful, we only resolved the parking by contacting our booking operator travelextra who arranged for someone to meet us at the airport to take the car to a car park and meet us on return this was resolved three hours after arrival with no help from the hotel staff , the hotel decor is dated, rooms are musty, we even found bloodstains on one of the pillows and despite two request to change the pillow nobody arrived. if i give one piece of advice to you dont stay here!

I agree wholeheartedly with the other poor reviews for this hotel. My boyfriend and I booked to stay here for 1 night before flying out to the Dominican Republic and I can honestly say i have never had a worse hotel experience. Our room was dirty, tatty, unclean and felt like a sauna. The shower resembled something from the dark ages and was extremely tempremental when it came to providing hot water. When we arrived we had no towels and this meant that after a long car journey from Glasgow we were unable to have a refreshing shower. We tried to phone reception but were unable to get an answer. We decided to go for a dip in the pool instead and reported the missing towels on our way. Unfortunately no one had told us that even tho we were residents of the hotel we had to pay for the use of the pool! Something they cunningly ommitted from their hotel website! As for the pool well don't waste your money, it was absolutely disgusting!! It was so filthy that when i went under the water with my goggles on I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face! Not to mention the dirt and dead flies around the edge. Needless to say we never stayed in it long but headed back up to our room to have a shower before heading down to dinner, unfortunately tho our towels still hadn't arrived and further chasing up was required. Finally when we made it down to dinner we ended up wishing we had gone out somewhere to eat. There were only 2 girls serving both restuarants and their customer service was as bad as the food they served! After this catalogue of disasters you would think nothing else could go wrong but to top it off the hotel had a faulty fire alarm that loudly went off at regular intervals during the entire night before we were due to leave for our holiday. Our flight was early the next day and was a mere 10 hours long - I was shattered before i even got on the plane! This ruined the start of my holiday. I would not recommend this hotel to anyone, it is the WORST i have ever experienced, if you are considering it please do NOT stay there!