HOTEL IN A MAILBOX???? (Hotels in Birmingham in general)

Member Name: binnie

Product:	Hotels in Birmingham in general
Date:	02/07/03 (303 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: CENTRAL LOCATION, VERY NICE AND CLEAN, GREAT PRICES

Disadvantages: WANT TO GO EVERY WEEK NOW

The Days Inn Birmingham was the last resort, I had one of my bored days at work and decided yet again at the last minute that me and hubbie should hit the city. I tried the hotels in Manchester, some in Nottingham, then the last resort Birmingham. I rang a few of them and all were booked up, so when I rang Days Inn I was expecting them to say "sorry we are booked too". That wasn't the case , the girl at the other end of the phone mumbled something like £68 a room per night, I thought sod it we will stay two nights.
She asked for my debit card number to secure the booking and I told her we would be there by 8pm that Saturday night.

The Days Inn is located in The Mailbox shopping centre. As we pulled up we noticed it was all lit up bright red, we had seen this building in December and always wondered what it was. We had to park our car in the multi storey car park which is located in the shopping complex. You then have to go up in a lift to the Days Inn, but it wasn't as easy as that. When the lift doors opened we looked as though we were in a normal multi storey car park, then went through a door and what a shock we had. There were posh shops galore, posh cocktail bars, further down was another apartment type hotel, well at least that's what we thought it was. We couldn't find the Days Inn at first as we had turned left at the door, but when we asked the security guards, they said it was right and overlooking the canal. As we approached the hotel, we noticed there were bars underneath it, I was worried we wouldn't get any sleep. But double glazing is good nowadays and it wasn't to be.

Arriving at reception, it was quite small but tidy, nice and clean and modern. The girl behind the reception was the same one who had booked me in. She was lovely, very friendly and polite. I had forgot to tell her that I work for the Holiday Cottage Group and we get discounts off Days Inn, but was meant to book it online, but didn
't have time. She said I will see what I can do. She got a supervisor out, another nice lady, think she was French and I showed her my wage slip and proof that I worked there,she thought about it for a minute, then said I could have the rate for friends and family, which was £48, I was very pleased. I told them that we might not stay two nights, but could they hold the room just in case, they said they could as long as I let them know by 11am the next day.

In the reception area was some leaflets of local attractions, Cadburys World etc, and there was a payphone with a useful directory of numbers. We used it to ring a Pizza Delivery service who came right up to our room within 20 mins of ordering.
The hotel didn't have 24 hour room service, but that wasn't a problem as we were in the middle of the shopping area etc and near to takeaways. There wasn't much else in reception only a drinks vending machine and a couple of chairs.

Altogether there are 90 rooms in this hotel and probably only two or three floors. We were given our electronic key, which didn't work at first, and opened the door in surprise. What a lovely sight, everything looked brand spanking new. The rooms were all done out in a Light Beechwood, the quilts were whiter than white, and everything looked so inviting.
I headed straight for the bathroom as this is my favourite room of the house and was pleasantly surprised. I normally like a bath, but this room had an enormour walk in shower and yes it was a power shower. It had a white tray which looked brand new, I was glad about that as that is the reason I don't normally like hotel showers on their own, the walk in tray sometimes looks unhygenic. There was a very handy rail leading you into the shower along with a soap holder. The shower had a metal bar with different settings, it's hard to describe as it was quite unusual. The shower was very very powerful and I felt wonderful after one.

The C
ream tiles looked elegant and clean and there were a few gentle orange tiles too scattered about.These were edged in Green and set them off very nicely. This was very impressive, I could stay here all day.
There were tissues in a holder on the wall next to the mirror, the mirror was massive and went right round the sink. There was a handy ledge near the sink for toiletries, but talking toiletries, there was Lux Bodywash on the wall which I do find hard to squeeze out, so I take my own just in case.There was even "his n hers" toilet roll holders. The shaver point was powered for 230V and 115V. There were plenty of nice fluffy white towels, which were filthy by the time my foundation got on them, tut tut.


The bedroom was basic, but modern and clean. It had a pale blue carpet, Beechwood everywhere. The headboard was a light Beech, it set the bed off nicely. We had a double bed with nice clean white duvets. Very plain, but looked expensive material. It was a shame to get in the bed, it was so pristine looking.
In the room was the usual desk with TV on top, a Kettle, cups, coffee, tea etc, but alas no biscuits.
There was a staionary pad, notelets and pen and a sitting area with two drawers. In the drawers were extra pillows and towels and a hairdryer. The wall behind the bed was painted a nice Heather Blue and Minty Green, it was very modern. The curtains were Yellow, Greens and Blues, they set the room off nicely. There were a couple of paintings on the wall done in nice pastel colours. There was a storage heater too, but we didn't need it as the room was warm enough without being suffocating.
The wardrobe only had 6 coat hangers in it, but then I suppose these sort of hotels are for one or two nights only. The full length beech mirror was useful too. Opening the curtains, our room looked over the Birmingham canal and I started thinking about work. I work selling Boating and canal Holidays and Iam sad to say, I was trying to s
pot one of our boats.It's not an eyesore as someone might think, it's a very trendy area where loads of students, business people walk by and sometimes sit overlooking the canal on the many seats outside the pavement cafes.

After a great nightout at Edwards No8 Rock Club, we headed back to the hotel at about 2am. There wasn't any security which I was surprised about. The reception chappie told us we could order a pizza and have it delivered to our room, which we did, he said there was no room service. Within 20 mins it came, and we scoffed the lot. In the morning we went down for breakfast in a pleasant room. It was a buffet breakfast and all you could eat. This was in the price of the room, we never got offered a room only price, and breakfast charged extra, it was all in one price. I didn't think paying £48 with my discount was bad at all especially for this lovely and clean place.
Breakfast was ok, the usual was laid out, fruit, cereal, english brekkie etc. There were quite a few tables, but wasn't too packed. They even had a widescreen TV to sit and watch Breakfast TV, ha ha.
After breakfast we decided to check out and let the room go, not because we hated it, but we decided to go shopping on the way home and thought the money would go towards that.

Overall it was a lovely place to stop and we will be visiting there again even if we have to pay the full price, afterall it's been voted "International Property of the Year".

Days Inn
160 Wharfside st
the Mailbox
Birmingham
B1 1RL

Tel 0121 643 9344
Fax 0121 643 2044

Email birmingham@daysinn.co.uk

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