The Palace Hotel in Manchester is a grade 2 listed building and a four star hotel, owned by the Principal Hayley chain.
It is located at:

Oxford Street
Manchester
England, M60 7HA
UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1612 881 111

My experience of the hotel:
The good:

Location:

The hotel itself is beautiful - a red brick listed building with a clock tower, which made it incredibly easy to spot, plus its location two seconds away from Manchester Victoria station (and therefore only a short train or bus trip to the town centre) makes the location fantastic.

My Room:

I was staying in one of the executive rooms, and found it to be beautiful - high ceilings, clean and modern decoration. The bed was extremely comfortable and the furniture was modern and spacious.
The bathroom was reasonably sized, with a mirror taking up one side of the room, and even more fantastic - when it steamed up after I had a shower, a small square patch was left clear so that I could still do my make - up - very thoughtful!

Facilities:

The room had all the basic amenities - small toiletries, tea and coffee facilities, television, magazines on things to do in Manchester, towels and a hair dryer were provided, as well as a connection to broadband internet (though you had to pay for this).
My room was cleaned daily and towels replaced, at all times I found staff to be really helpful and friendly.

Nearby amenities:

I was staying at the hotel for business, but in the evening I took a wonder around, and there is a lot to keep you entertained if you so wish. The Palace Theatre is right opposite, and The Cornerhouse on the other side shows films and art exhibitions. There is a Sainsbury's, as well as Starbucks and several small sandwich shops close by (my personal fave was The New York Deli - the staff there were so friendly!). The hotel itself also has a trendy restaurant and bar if you're too lazy to go out, but it is quite pricey.

The bad:

Prices:

The main issue with The Palace is of course the price - as it is four stars and in a prime location, it can charge extortionate rates for staying there, I was paying around £140 per night, but standard singles are £85 upwards. I would recommend booking through the Principal Hayley website, as they occasionally have offers, and you can save up to 30% by booking a non-refundable ticket, though prices largely depend on timing.
Although I think the cost to stay there is a little high, for me it was definitely worth it, but where The Palace seems to really charge to excess is in various extras in your stay. To have Wi-Fi internet access was £15 per day, I ended up buying an O2 mobile dongle for £25 that lasts me a month! For dry-cleaning it seemed you could purchase clothes for cheaper than you could have them cleaned - £1.50 to have a handkerchief dry cleaned (madness!). The worst was breakfast, I paid £15 a day to have breakfast - and don't get me wrong, it was delicious - a choice of full English or continental buffet in the beautiful tempus bar, but with a Sainsbury's opposite selling fresh croissants every morning for 70p, I would definitely encourage people to go for the bed without the breakfast!

Noise:

I found a couple of nights in a row I couldn't sleep - I am not sure if this was due to trains going passed or people coming back from night outs!
Facilities
The hotel does not have a car park - I was travelling by train so this didn't matter to me, but I have been told NCP (the nearest) is £9 per day, so it adds up!

Overall I had a good experience staying at the hotel, it was pricey, but the facilities were good and staff were friendly, so I think I would stay there again.
The hotel is also often used for conferences, though I don't know what these facilities are like!