The Copthorne Hotel (Birmingham)
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Newest Review: ... desk quickly checked us in. She ran through the hotel's numerous facilities, including an on-site gym. However, we weren't going to mak... more

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The Copthorne Hotel (Birmingham)

binnie

Member Name: binnie

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The Copthorne Hotel (Birmingham)

Date: 06/08/02, updated on 29/04/05 (232 review reads)

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Advantages: Plenty to see, Nice and Clean, great facilites

Disadvantages: none

Here Iam again, gadding about the big cities.It's a bit dull where I live, so if theres an excuse to stay in a nice hotel, then I will find one.

It was my hubbies Birthday and it was my last Saturday for finishing at 2pm. From now on I have to work 9-5 on a Saturday and it would have been a big rush to get to Birmingham if I finished at 5pm.

It was a last minute decision to go here. On Friday night I had applied for a free cottage from work, but somebody beat me to it, so I decided to go on the internet and search for a bargain hotel.
We have already stayed in two hotels in Brummie, and wanted somewhere different.
I came across The Copthorne by accident, I just typed in Hotels in Birmingham in the search engine google, and eventually it led me to their website.
The first thing that hit me was the price, it was £49 for a Double room with a Queen bed.
After months of searching hotels all over the country, I was beginning to think of the UK as a big rip off. Now £49 isn't dirt cheap, but it was the best I could find without the hotel looking shabby.
Then I started looking at the cost for breakfast, and it came up with £13.95 each, I decided to forget that.

I booked the room online and it came back with a reference number for me to print out.
But later that night, I came across another site Millennium Hotels and they were offering the rooms with breakfast for £59 for the both of us.
I rang the hotel and cancelled the original booking, and booked the better deal, it was in conjunction with teletext.
The girl behind the reception was very obliging, she said it was no trouble to cancel their reservation and create a new one online, she even recommended lastminute.com.I checked it out, but still found www.millenniumhotels.com better.

Booking online with Millennium Hotels was easy, there were various offers offering allsorts of prices. You could have room only, room with breakfast, 2 night breaks et
c. Once I had booked, the only thing I got was a reference number, and nothing came back via email, so I rang the hotel and within minutes, they had my reservation up on their pc. I bet the girl on reception thought I was a pain in the bum.

Saturday came and we found the hotel eventually, we always get lost when we go to Birmingham.
On pulling up outside the glass fronted building, we noticed the blacked out windows edged in red. Maybe this is where famous people stay eh?
The Concierge quickly greeted us, he seemed to spring up out of nowhere,wow this was quick service.
He told us to check in and then he would show us to the car park, which was situated across the road.
There were only a few spaces to park outside the hotel and these were already full.
The car park cost £5.00 0vernight, and £3.00 for 8 hours.
I think they have a cheek charging when you are staying there.

Checking in was easy, we didn't wait long. Behind the counter was Simon and Zoe (trainee). We gave our name, and they looked at each other, and said "are you the people with two rooms"?.
Apparently the receptionist the night before hadn't cancelled our original reservation, so we had two rooms booked.
There wasn't a problem, they quickly released one of the rooms.
We were given an electronic card for the key, and the details of the leisure club and times.
The reception area was lovely and inviting, there were leather settees scattered about, marble floors, a great big chandlier also hung from the roof. It was very impressive.

The Cricketers bar was the first place you came to from the reception, it served beers, wines, cocktails and coffees, also you could get a quick snack, i.e, burger, sandwiches.
There was a non smoking area, with leather settees, chairs and tables, it was very nice.
We got a Pina Colada and a beer, it came to £6.00. I t wasn't too smokey an atmosphere either, me and my husband ar
e non smokers and hate smoke filled bars, this was brilliant as there was hardly anybody in there. We felt as though the bar was our own.

Just off the bar, to the left was the a' la carte restaurant Goldsmiths, it was in a lovely room with glass doors, we only peeped in as the prices were a bit steep for us, saying that I'm not keen on fancy food, give me egg and chips anyday.
I could imagine feeling awkward in there, I'm not really into posh eateries, they make me want to giggle for some reason. I wouldn't even know which knife and fork to pick up.

Through the Cricketers bar, was another place to eat called Goldies Brasserie, it had unusal dishes on the menu and was cheaper than the a' la carte, but still didn't appeal to us.
We ended up finding a Pizza Hut, a few streets away.
We did have our breakfast in there the day after, and that was nice.
Wasn't worth paying the £13.95, if we were to pay the full cost.
You could have any fruit juice, cereals, pastries, fruit segments, fresh salmon, british breakfst, coffee etc.
We never go mad, we just had a British Breakfast and toast.The Brasserie wasn't massive, but still had enough tables not to feel too cramped.
There was a lovely spot, where a table and chairs were set up on a rised platform overlooking the swimming pool.
Above had stained glass windows, it was quite eyecatching.

The facilities of the leisure club, which was situated on the second floor, were a gymnasium, a sauna, steam room, spa bath and heated pool. These were all free to use as a guest.
You were given an access code when you checked in. I wish we had time to use them, if we had stayed for two nights, then we would have had the time.
I could have done with a good workout after all the alcohol we drunk.
Some people came into breakfast on the Sunday morning with wet hair, they must have been swimming first thing in the morning. Great way to build your
appetite up for the hearty breakfast.

Our bedroom was on the third floor, it was room 315. It was easily reached by stairs or the lazy way, a lift.
There were a couple of lifts, which were large enough for six people and their luggage, the floors were numbered and any info to say where the leisure club was etc.
Our room was a non smoking Classic room,with a Queen bed.
It had a bathroom with bath/shower, vanity area with loads of smellies.
Tv, with pay on demand movies, Sky programmes.
A dressing table with four drawers, a hairdryer, wardrobe and coffee table and comfy chair.
We could even have had a well stocked mini bar if we wanted, but of course the drinks would be expensive, so we didn't bother.
The windows were triple glazed, we could open one window, then the next to air the room, the noise was horrific when we opened them. After closing the windows, there was silence, what a difference it made.

The Copthorne Hotel, was situated on Paradise Circus near to the Convention Centre.
It wasn't as ideally situated as the others wee have stayed in, but was still walking distance to the shops, bars.
There was a centre just outside the doors, which housed a few bars, whetherspoon, Mcdonalds, a newsagents were also there.
They were handy and cheaper than the hotel prices. It was a pity we had only one night there as we didn't get the benefit of all the facilities. We didn't use the gym, pool etc. They had closed at 5pm just as we got there. The leisure club is open 7 days a week and is open Mon-Fri, 7am to 8pm, Sat to Sun 8am to 5pm.

Goldsmiths restaurant is open 12 for lunch and 7pm to 10pm in the evening.
Dinner costs between £23.95 and £26.95.
Goldies Brasserie is open for breakfast from 7am to 10.30, closes a at 11am on Sundays.
Then reopens at 11am for lunch until 4pm. Dinner is at 4pm to 11pm.
As I said, breakfast in here should be £13.95, luch starts at £6.95 up to
£12.00, dinner starts at £10 to £14.
Cricketers is open from 11am until 11pm.


This hotel is rated by the AA as a four star complex.
It has 212 rooms, some of which are non smoking, Classic Rooms and Connoisseur rooms.
The Connoisseur rooms are £79 per night and consist of a mini bar with free soft drinks, chocolates, bath robes, free newpaper and late 5pm checkout.Other services for the hotel are, same day laundry service, shoe shine service, car rental, theatre reservations,doctor available on call, safe deposit box.
There is also four suites and a meeting room.
This accommodates 200 people, to have a reception you could seat 250 and a banquet for 150.

Overall I found this hotel lovely and clean, the check-in and out was easy, with no wait.
We had to fill a short questionnaire about our stay at the end, we could nominate staff for awards.
It was spacious, with nice eating areas, with a price for everybody.
Would stay again.


Check out www.millenniumhotels.com.

Hotel address is
Paradise Circus
Birmingham
B3 3HJ

Tel 0121 2002727
Fax 0121 2001197



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