As a travel agent I tend to get offered preferential rates at certain hotels, this is usually to try and fill up empty rooms in their hotels. One year everyone in our department decided to have a girly New Year in Manchester and I was given the job of organising the hotel and at New Year it is not the easiest of tasks.
The Thistle Hotel offered special rates to agents of £25 per room, this I thought would be ideal as I needed to make an agent's booking I had to use the dedicated agent's booking line to make the reservation which works in a similar way to telephone reservations for the general public, alternatively the Thistle Hotel has an online booking system to make a reservation.

A Brief guide to making a reservation:-
My tip is to first visit the website to check the online availability of the room then you save yourself a few pence on making the call to the hotel and waiting in the queue for a reservations consultant, if there is availability you can either continue to book online or alternatively call through to the reservations team on 0870 3339132.

• You will be told the name of the reservations consultant and asked to confirm the hotel that you wish to stay in
• You will then be asked to provide the dates and duration that you wish to stay at the hotel and the consultant will then proceed to check the availability
• The reservation consultant will then confirm the room type and the total cost for the room per night and if staying for more than one night will confirm the total cost of your stay
• Next they will ask for the lead name of the guest and address and contact telephone number along with an email address and will continue with your booking
• You will then be asked to provide a debit/credit card number to secure the booking but nothing will be charged until you check-out of the hotel this is just a security measure should you not cancel the room and you fail to check-in and is standard procedure with most hotels
• You will then be provided with your confirmation reference which is required at check-in and if you need to make any amendments to your booking before check-in
• This will be emailed to you and an additional copy will also be posted out to you

A Brief Introduction to the hotel:-
The Thistle Hotel has 48 fully serviced hotels in their group located all over the United Kingdom with 19 hotels in London, the hotel that I booked was the Thistle Manchester, a 3 star hotel, located on 3-5 Portland Street which overlooks Piccadilly Gardens and is just minutes away from the fantastic city centre shops including H&M, Primark, Monsoon, HMV and Shelly's with many many more to wander around.

The hotel looks rather grand from the outside and to enter the hotel is a large revolving door which leads you straight into the reception area. The reception area is constantly manned by two members of staff and there is a porter on hand to assist with luggage should you require this service.


The hotel has 205 rooms with the option of either single, twin, double or one of 12 suites.

Each room contains the following:-

• Ensuite bathroom with bath and overhead shower
• Fluffy white towels including a bath sheet and hand towel
• Tea and Coffee making facilities
• TV complete with satellite
• Trouser Press
• Iron and Ironing Board

The room itself was tastefully decorated and looked fairly modern the carpets are a turquoise green and the curtains and bedspreads are matched with navy, turquoise and gold stripe which complements the golden yellow wallpaper that is not too overpowering.
There is also plenty of storage in the hotel with wardrobe, a bedside table complete with lamp and drawers contained within the television unit, there is also a lamp to the corner of the room next to the window to create a more relaxing atmosphere, the rooms can appear quite dark as some look out onto other buildings and the net curtains can appear quite dull and heavy.
The rooms do look fairly clean and tidy however by accident I tripped over the bedspread falling onto one of the twin beds which made it move where I discovered some old smelly socks under the bed, now I don't know how some people who are paid to clean actually clean but around the furniture is not very clean in my books and not ideal for those with allergies as it is not clearing away the majority of grime, so after discovering this I began to wonder how clean this room actually was.

The bathroom was clean though and you could not fault the extra touch of basic toiletries and clean fluffy white towels and even a bath mat for use in the shower, there was also a toilet brush included in the toilet should that be required!

Included in the cost of the room is breakfast which has so much for you to choose from a fully cooked breakfast to fresh fruit and pastries.

This particular hotel also has full health and leisure facilities including a swimming pool which is free for residents to use, I as you can imagine as I was staying on New Years Eve did not get chance to make use of this facility.

Car Parking is not within the hotel but is located nearby in the NCP Car Park and can work out quite costly for a 24 hour stay at £15 however I parked my car there and it was perfectly safe there and was just a 5 minute walk behind the hotel.

Overall for the price that I paid for the room I could barely complain but if I was paying the full cost of £50 per room then this certainly would not pass for my high standards.

As with most hotels you get what you pay for and whether or not we get a poor room due to the fact we were travel trade that will never be discovered!!

Definatelty not one of the better 3* properties I have stayed in.

Contact Details:-
Thistle Manchester
3-5 Portland St
Piccadilly Gardens
Manchester
M1 6DP

Tel:- 0870 3339132
Email:- Manchester@thistle.co.uk