England Manchester Marriott Airport

[Romelle]

My brother and I had two rooms at the Manchester Airport Marriott May 15, 2009. For starters, the Manchester Airport had easy to find ATMs and computers. The hotel is quite a ways from the airport and is served by shuttle service. The 5 GBP rate mentioned on their web site is actually for a round trip ticket. One way is 3 GBP. While it probably is easy to find the pick-up points when not totally jet-lagged and sleep deprived, I misunderstood the directions the first time and did wander outside for quite a while. The second set of directions ultimately did the trick.

No mention of PL on check-in, just a murmur that my room was pre-paid. My brother was arriving several hours later, so when I checked in I asked if maybe we could have rooms reasonably close together (some hotels call it pre-blocking). Somehow "...that wasn't possible to do with their computers"?? The hotel is huge and winding about, and we actually ended up in totally different wings and at least a 5 minute walk apart.

The rooms were well appointed, attractively decorated, nice linens, comfortable bed, wonderful soaking tub, quality toiletries, and spotlessly clean. Lovely greenery, statues, flowers, fountains and winding paths outside. Coffee and tea making facilities in the room, and even some cookies. A very nice 4*.

There were no little restaurants or shops in the immediate area. The hotel restaurant was on the expensive side. The front desk gave us walking directions to a little strip mile perhaps a mile away and we walked there. Bakery, fish and chips shop, small grocery store, etc. And the walk was through a very up-scale neighborhood with gorgeous houses and landscaping.

We took the shuttle back to the airport the next day to continue our journey via train. Right at the airport is a fairly major train station. Trains go in all directions from there. Downtown Manchester is the next stop on trains heading in that direction.

While it might have saved a bit of time if we had gotten a hotel truly right at the airport, the shuttle worked well and even gave us a bit of sight-seeing. Drivers were good-natured and courteous too.

All in all, a terrific PL bargain at $47!

Romelle

[Romelle]

I bid Manchester airport area again for September 12, 2010 and again got the Manchester Airport Marriott.

The shuttle service (# 7 airport bus) has now gone to 6 GBP return, and 4 GBP one-way. I also learned taxi fare one-way was 7 GBP. I was traveling solo so used the shuttle, but the taxi would have been a break-even one-way for two (with a 1 GBP tip), and a better deal for 3 or more.

While the Marriott is quite close to the airport, it is the last stop in the shuttle route coming from the airport. The reward is in the return, when one doesn't have to loop through the other hotels.

In the Business Center, one can use a computer for free for obtaining boarding passes. And in the lobby is a video screen with air departures.

There was a nice bowl of free fruit on the check-in counter.

I arrived by train this time, at the Manchester Airport (from Edinburgh). A number of train routes run though the city of Manchester, but actually make their final stop at the airport, making for a very convenient transition to a flight.

A goodly supply of different pillows on the bed.

Definitely a fine Priceline deal.

Romelle