Rule Britannia? (Britannia Hotel Birmingham)

Member Name: scuba_angel

Product:	Britannia Hotel Birmingham
Date:	28/07/08 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: reasonable price, newly refurbed room, fab bath and shower

Disadvantages: some areas are still very tatty

Well my second weekend in Brumopolis passed with little excitement, which was something of a relief.
The hotel on this occasion was booked through laterooms.com (see upcoming review) and was the Britannia in the city centre, it cost me £47 for a double room bed only, a friend also staying the same night paid £42 for a single.

Arriving at the train station my previous visits 'beer compass' directions sent me for a walk around the outside of the train station but from the exit through the shopping centre it is literally a walk of a minute at most (note to self shoving through groups of football fans is a bad idea). But for a city centre hotel you cant get much more central than this one.
The hotel itself has the entry through Union Passage just off the main street. The revolving door is quite heavy but there is a wider wheelchair accessable door to the side.

The reception is small, and old fashioned looking. Booking was a very painless experience and thankfully after the previous disaster, on arrival the the hotel I walked straight to the desk gave them my name, spelled my name (not sure the girl quite understood my accent) and was handed the paper work to sign while she got the key card activated for me.
The lifts to the rooms are on the right of the reception, you could use the stairs but my room was on the 9th floor and I wasnt feeling all that energetic.

Currently the hotel is undergoing a refurb, which I presume is what accounted for the lack of signs on the walls and fire doors telling you where the rooms are, so after a few minutes walking around looking at doors we found the room.
Possibly due to booking through the website the room was in the middle of the building thus had no windows, but the aircon unit over the door was more than welcome as this weekend was rather warm! The room itself was of a decent size, a standard double bed against the back wall with an actual wardrobe, a desk/dressing table, and two bedside cabinets. All of which were in a rather nice old fashion style dark wood veneer, thankfully the white walls made the room feel bigger as a dark or coloured paint could have made it feel very small.

The bathroom was something of a surprise, all brand new looking fittings and tiles and a frankly fabulous jacuzzi bath and power shower to blast your skin off if you like it that way - and I do. It did seem a little odd however that there was no toilet roll holder on the wall. I wasnt overly impressed by the towels either the larger ones were small for my liking they certainly werent bath towel size.
The bed had a decent set of sheets to completely and utterly bamboozle me, and for cooler nights there were more in the wardrobe along with two extra sets of towels and extra pillows.

While my experience of the hotel was pretty good my friend who was in a single room on the 2nd floor said she found it on the whole quite tatty and wasnt impressed at all. Though her main gripe was that the single room she booked really did have a single bed in it and the bathroom suite was quite tired (and didnt have a jacuzzi). But from the glimpse of the landing on her floor the decor did look old and tired, though there were signs telling you behind which door you would find various room numbers.
Since once again I didnt pay any attention to the location of the bar or dining room I couldnt tell you what they were like but if the hotel is being refurbished from the top down (as seems to be the case) chances are they'll be changed shortly anyway.

Other things to like about the hotel include its proximity to the bars, shops and cinema (right across the street).

Summary: If you can get a good price its a great place for a short stay.