Aparthotel Roomzzz has now opened in Manchester, occupying the building previously known as the Yang Sing Oriental Boutique Hotel which went bust earlier in 2009 (I previously reviewed it here). Roomzzz is in essence an "Aparthotel", that is, it caters more for the traveller that wants to be self-sufficient during their stay, for example, by cooking their own meals. In my view, that tends to be the family market, which this hotel - by nature of it's design/decoration - isn't suited to. As with the previous Yang Sing, reception is located in the basement and if you're dropping bags off in your car, it is difficult with the hotel being located by a major set of traffic lights with double yellow lines on and no pull in bay of any kind. Reception is nicely decorated, very contemporary and gives a good opening account of the hotel along with the pleasant reception staff. Rooms are spread across five floors, we stayed in room 406 (a Grande Studio) on the fourth floor overlooking Princess Street, with the advantage being it's a bit quieter for the traffic noise, which can be substantial given the hotels location. The room was well laid out, had a lovely bathroom (albeit with leaking bath and a shower curtain - rather than screen) with an integrated TV which you could watch whilst having a soak in the bath . With the hotel previously being a top of the range boutique hotel, you quickly notice that some of the fixtures and fittings are of top quality (like the bath TV) and others aren't, with the new owners re-fitting it to their spec which is more cost conscious (desks and wardrobes). Also worthy of note is that most rooms only have a shower, bath's are by special request. Each room has it's own mini-kitchen, which did feel rather strange in a boutique style hotel and the units looked quite out of place in the rooms. Nevertheless, if you want to cook your own food, you'll find they have everything you need. For the business traveller, you get free wireless, a work station (which was too small in my view) and i-mac in each room, a couple of bottles of small mineral water I think would be a good addition. The LG LCD TV took some figuring out, only by having the same model at home was I able to get some channels going, so I'm sure this will mean quite a few calls to reception by guests staying. Staying on the subject of being a business traveller, for me, when I stay at a hotel on business I generally like to sit in a bar during the evening and do a bit of work or eat in the hotel restaurant in order to feel not quite as isolated. Roomzzz has neither, so if you prefer that things yourself, Roomzzz won't be for you. They sell food at reception, but not alcohol if you fancy a beer in your room whilst working, which seems really strange. Breakfast is a concept called "grab and go" which basically means some croissants, fruit and pastries in reception with a coffee machine (pastries I grabbed were stale). It won't suit everyone, especially if you need to set yourself up for the day and it was missing some carry bags or other method - other than a napkin - of getting it back to your room. I think they'd be better to just deliver this to the room in bags hung on your door, like other hotels I've stayed in. Bed was comfortable. The room had a free safe (albeit it was right at the bottom of the wardrobe, which means hands and feet to lock it) and the quality of the room overall was to expectation with high ceilings and some exposed beams, which makes it stand out from the lifeless chain hotels that you often stay in. The standard rooms called Smart Studios seemed comfortable, although some seemed quite basic and a little cold. One other thing not to forget is that you will be charged car parking, the closest car park is the Q-park a couple of streets up from Roomzzz, overnight will cost you around £18, so it's important to factor this into your budget, they do offer at 25% discount at NCP but the staff seemed a little unsure on how to get this. On the plus side, most other hotels in Manchester don't have parking and the wireless internet is free, which you can offset the parking cost against. The key thing to remember is that it is more about renting an apartment for the night and there are very few "hotel facilities", so if you want a bar and a restaurant, stay somewhere else such as The Radisson Edwardian. I would always pay the difference and go for a Grande Studio if it were me which you can get for around £99 per night, midweek. The hotel doesn't have an official star rating, so I'd put the rooms around 4P and the facilities at 3P, given that they don't really offer much. Overall, I think the Roomzzz aparthotel will be good value if you can get the right rate, breakfast is unimportant and you're eating out or don't mind preparing your own food.
