The first time I ever took a trip to Birmingham was with my friends when I was about 18 and we stayed in City Inn. I really liked the hotel back then as it was all nice and white and fresh and had a CD player in every room (easy impressed as a teenager haha!). The other thing that made this hotel stand out was the attitude of the very polite and friendly staff. I called to ask if there were any irons and was told that somebody would bring me one up to my room along with an ironing board. Shortly after, someone turned up with them as promised and told me he liked my outfit which made me extra happy! When I was finished, I took the iron and board back down to reception which they were surprised at and told me if I had called someone could have come and got it for me (which was sweet but I obviously didn't mind as I'm fully capable of carrying things to a lift by myself!).

After that, I used to take trips to Birmingham with my friends every couple of months and quite often stayed in City Inn.

Last year (2010), I went with my boyfriend to attend one of my friend's engagement parties and booked us into City Inn. I would like to point out that my boyfriend is extremely fussy and nearly always finds something to complain about but he loved the hotel as well and told me he wanted to come back for a full weekend. The rooms have now upgraded from a simple CD player to an iMac computer which acts as CD player, TV and computer with free internet access all in one which is great.

Since my boyfriend had liked it so much the first time, I took him back there in October for 2 nights for his birthday and booked a room and breakfast for both days. This was the first time I had had breakfast in the hotel and was very impressed. You get a cooked breakfast which you order (bacon, toast, eggs etc) but you also have access to a buffet which has croissants, pain au chocolates, different types of fruit juice, yoghurts, cold meats, fruit and cheese. As a result we both ate loads both days and the food was lovely.

The hotel is very close to Broad Street (when you come out of Brindley Place, you are basically on it) which is great as its only a couple of minutes walk to a range of bars, restaurants and clubs and there is also a Sainsbury's local right by the hotel in case you need any bits and pieces.

I know that the hotel has recently rebranded and is now called Mint hotel but I can't really say if the actual hotel has also changed as the last time I stayed was October.