£299 for a night in a windowless bedroom at the Britannia? Yep, that really happened, writes Dianne Bourne
09:45, 27 Nov 2025Updated 15:12, 28 Nov 2025
Reporter Dianne Bourne looks back at her stays at Manchester’s “worst” hotels, including (pictured) The Britannia Hotel on Portland Street(Image: MEN Media)
Manchester has a burgeoning hotel scene right now, with new ones popping up left, right and centre amid a huge demand for stays in our buzzing city centre.
The premium market is on the rise too, with more five star hotels now than we’ve ever had. But naturally not everyone’s budget stretches to a superstar-style luxury hotel stay.
As Lifestyle Editor here at the MEN, I’ve been tasked with checking out the very best of Manchester’s hotels over the years, as well as some of those that tend to languish at the bottom of the Tripadvisor rankings.
There are some names that come back time and time again as among the worst, and in Which?’s annual hotel survey the Britannia Hotel Group was named the worst hotel group in the UK for the 12th year in a row last month. I mean that’s some record isn’t it?
The Britannia Hotel in Manchester(Image: MEN Media)
Its hotels were slammed for their cleanliness and low quality bedrooms, with an approval rating of just 44% – meaning the majority of customers would NOT recommend the hotels to a friend.
Manchester has two Britannia hotels in the city centre, Sacha’s on Tib Street and The Britannia on Portland Street.
Their less than favourable reviews on Tripadvisor see them languish in the places of 126 and 129 out of 130 similar sized hotels on the public reviews website. Gulp.
And lucky old me, I’ve also been to the hotel placed right at the bottom of the pile too – the one at 130 out of 130 for Manchester.
So were they all as bad as the Tripadvisor and Which rankings would have you believe? Well, it’s fair to say one of these surprised me. The other two, well, read on and you’ll find out.
THE GOOD: Sacha’s
Sachas Hotel in Manchester(Image: MEN)
Yes, you read that right. I thought Sacha’s was good, OK?
I mean, lord knows this place has taken some flak over the years. I think I’ve seen more online reviews of Sacha’s than I have for the Oasis comeback, I swear.
I recall some reviews going totally viral after critics compared it to the Bates Motel and American Horror Story – but I mean come on, it’s really not that bad is it?
Now I should say, what I booked for and what I got didn’t match up. That’s because, inexplicably, I got offered an upgrade when I arrived to check in at Sachas.
I’d paid £92 for a windowless room. What I got was a rather lavish (ish) four poster bed bedroom, but I suppose that was slightly more befitting of the price tag.
Double bedroom with windows at Sachas Hotel(Image: Manchester Evening News)
Sure, the interiors were all a bit dated, but it had huge windows with lots of natural light. Sure, the TV or wifi wouldn’t work, but I was heading out on the town anyway.
Sure, there were loads of weird cracks in the bathroom but it all looked clean enough. Oh except for the window frames which had engrained dirt and ancient cigarette butts wodged in the double glazing.
But it was the quirkiness of the place I loved. When I stayed they even had cute terrapins swimming with fishes in an indoor pond in the basement buffet room where I headed for breakfast the next morning.
A bit like no one expecting the Spanish inquisition, literally no one expects to find terrapins flapping about while tucking in to a budget fry-up at Sachas do they?
I even feel like I might have missed out on the windowless rooms, for as my colleague found on his visit to Sachas, they’ve actually painted a mural of a window on the wall with an exotic view in lieu of Manchester. Dreamy.
A windowless room features an exotic mural like this(Image: Manchester Evening News)
For all the imperfections and weirdness, do you know what, I actually enjoyed my time at Sacha’s.
If you can nab a cheap deal here (you can get windowless rooms from £32 in December, rooms with a window are from £49) it’s not a bad place to rest your head if you’re Christmas shopping or going to the Manchester Christmas Markets which are practically opposite on Piccadilly Gardens.
I loved its wacky interiors, it’s crazy basement restaurant and hey, just like seemingly everyone else who stays there, I got a review out of it.
THE BAD: Britannia Hotel
The windowless double at The Britannia in Manchester(Image: MEN)
I still can’t believe I paid £299 to stay in a windowless room at the Britannia. And that they tried to make me pay for breakfast on top of that eye-watering amount.
It might have been three years since my stay there, but do you know what, people still ask me about this one now, so embedded it all is in our collective memories.
If I mention I’m staying in town after some do or another I’ll get a chuckle of “You’re not staying in that windowless room again are you”?
And the answer is always: “No, I will NEVER stay in a windowless room at the Britannia Hotel again. Like EVER.”
The grand chandelier was a distraction from the large queue(Image: MEN)
It was just a poor experience from the moment I walked up its admittedly grand steps, and then had to wait in an HOUR long queue to check-in. At least we could all stand and take photos of the grand chandelier in the lobby I suppose.
Once inside my £299 windowless room (the price was due to dynamic pricing due to a lot of big events and a marathon in the city that night), the next problems began.
It was a winter’s evening, so I was hoping it would be a warm room, but not THAT warm – it was stuffy to the point of almost unbearable, and I could not make the ageing air con work, so with no window to gasp for air I was screwed.
When I finally did manage to get to sleep that night, I was woken again at 2.30am by a warring couple banging and shouting outside as I cowered under my cover.
My main complaint, aside from my gripes above, was the sheer rip off of the price for the room. The very same windowless room, booked to stay on this Monday, December 1, will cost you just £42.
My colleague stayed again at the Britannia this time last year, and he got a spacious double room with GIANT windows for £135. Although he wasn’t all that impressed either.
The worst thing about it all is that The Britannia itself is one of Manchester’s most gorgeous buildings, the Grade II* listed former Watts Warehouse. If only it got a bit of TLC it could be one of the best venues in the city, instead of consistently being voted one of the worst.
THE DOWNRIGHT UGLY: The Merchants Hotel
Oh dear, the room at The Merchants still haunts Dianne(Image: Manchester Evening News)
I still feel a bit itchy just looking back at the pictures of the single room I stayed in at The Merchants.
The seat by the window? It actually crunched when I tried to sit on it, it was that old and grimy.
The view out the window? A load of rubbish bags and wheelie bins.
A good night’s sleep on that rickety bed that appeared to originate from the 1970s? Erm no, but then the bin trucks did start emptying those wheelie bins at around 5am.
I paid £42 for this room. Plus £2 to hire a towel, which I didn’t end up using because I figured my body was probably cleaner than the shower.
There was graffiti all over the front door, and one of the information boxes contains a dirty looking sheet of paper detailing room prices.
Without an apparent hint of irony, the crumpled up sheet said: “We invite you to experience the luxury of being treated like Royalty”.
Yep, The Merchants Hotel occupied perhaps the worst location ever knowingly deployed for a hotel in Manchester.
And yet, for those who don’t know the city, it probably looked quite good on a map, or from the publicity blurb saying it “brings the best of Manchester to your doorstep”.
To be clear – this picture below was what’s on your doorstep.
Welcome to Manchester! The view outside the main entrance of the Merchants Hotel on Back Piccadilly in Manchester.(Image: Manchester Evening News)
Forget The Bates Motel, if you want a real horror show, just go and look at some of the Tripadvisor reviews of this place.
The one good thing I can say about The Merchants is that it is now closed. Although it still exists on Tripadvisor and thus it still languishes in 130th place at the bottom of the hotel pile.
I’d say RIP Merchants, but honestly, the one thing you would never do at The Merchants is Rest in Peace.