Cheap, central and endlessly debated, Sacha’s Hotel has become one of Manchester’s most notorious places to stay. But with dozens of visits behind me, I’ve learned it’s not quite as simple as its online reputation suggests.
Tom Burnett Content Editor
16:38, 02 May 2026Updated 22:12, 02 May 2026
Every city needs a hotel like Sacha’s(Image: Tom Burnett/Manchester Evening News)
Ask 100 people in the city centre what the worst hotel in Greater Manchester is and there’s a reasonable chance a majority are going to say Sacha’s.
The colossal hotel on Back Piccadilly offers cheap and plentiful rooms an easy walk from the railway station, the city centre and the Northern Quarter. An ideal location in many ways.
Rather unfortunately, it has a bit of a grim reputation to go with it and there’s practically an entire genre of YouTube/TikTok videos from people who all seem to believe they’re the first person to ever write the words ‘I stayed at the worst hotel in Manchester’ (keep them coming mind you, I love them).
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A grand entrance(Image: Tom Burnett/Manchester Evening News)
Sacha’s isn’t so much a dirty little secret as it is a looming figure of dread casting a shadow over the city’s hotels. It probably has more said about it than any other hotel in the city, with the possible exception of the Lowry – which sits at the other end of the spectrum.
Reviews aren’t much more favourable from people who actually just want to sleep there rather than make a video. It gets more than its share of one and zero star reviews for a wide range of reasons.
Over the past few years I’ve stayed in the hotel dozens of times, either because I’m working late in the office or I’ve got an early morning flight or simply because I’m in Manchester for some other reason. A quick look at my history on Booking.com shows it is the hotel I’ve visited by far the most. I can’t say I’m proud of the fact, but I’m probably far more qualified to comment on Sacha’s than most.
Welcome to the party, pal(Image: Tom Burnett/Manchester Evening News)
Not exactly discerning
I should probably start by clarifying that my standards for hotel rooms are not particularly high. I’ve done a lot of travelling in my time, often on a fairly tight budget. I once found myself in Laos sharing a room with a gecko of some kind that had made its home in the (broken) air conditioning unit. Another time I was in Jordan and ended up with a rather large cockroach for a roommate (although not for very long thanks to judicial use of a shoe).
Perhaps the worst was the first time a girlfriend and I went away together and the cheerful man at the hotel in Tbilisi, Georgia, informed me that our room didn’t have a key because ‘someone has stolen it’. That was the last time in that relationship I ever got to pick the hotel, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
So, at the risk of giving away where I’m going with this early, I honestly don’t think Sacha’s is all that bad.
Not-so-rose tinted spectacles
That is not to say it is perfect. Far from it.
For a start – and this is not really anything the hotel can do much about – despite being in the centre of one of the UK’s most vibrant and flourishing cities, the area around it is a bit bleak at night. I’ve come to work on more than one morning and we’ve been running stories about police cordons in place nearby as a result of a stabbing or an assault (there was even one here when I checked in the other night). Again, not the hotel’s fault, but it doesn’t exactly set a welcoming tone to visitors staying here for a cheap night’s kip.
The interior leading up to the reception area feels like it might have been grandiose at its peak, with chandeliers and a broad staircase. The problem is it is impossible to tell when, if ever, that peak might have been. Sacha’s is less an aging dame, wearing her decades with dignity and grace, than a drunk mother-in-law on a hen do necking her duty free on the plane, kicking off and getting the flight diverted.
It looks like it goes on forever….feels like it too(Image: Tom Burnett/Manchester Evening News)
Check in is generally fine, as long as you have your ID with you, otherwise you can’t stay there. I did once see one man drunkenly argue that he didn’t need ID because he was ‘a genuine person’ – which didn’t work. It is however the only hotel I have ever stayed in anywhere in the world where I’ve been told off for checking in as ‘Tom’ when my passport says ‘Thomas’. I’ve been to some pretty odd places, so it makes me laugh that Manchester is the only one where it has ever come up.
The corridors often come up in criticisms of the hotel and it’s not hard to see why. They seem to extend on and on in every direction like an endless maze.
It gets compared to the film The Shining a lot. I personally think it comes across more like a glitchy 1990s unlicensed Scooby Doo video game where if you take a wrong turn the entire thing will crash and you’ll find yourself back downstairs by the KitKat vending machine.
The rooms themselves are always a bit of a gamble too. The cheapest rooms – and I’m convinced they’re the only ones anyone ever books – are often windowless twin or double rooms. If you’re lucky you might get a free upgrade to a room with a window (they used to offer an upgrade to a room with a window for a tenner, but I’ve not heard them do that for a while).
The window itself is not the real upgrade, particularly since there are no rooms in this hotel that offer views of much beyond other similar sized buildings on surrounding roads. What is a bit of an upgrade is the fact those rooms are cooler.
All decent hotel rooms need a fan going around the clock in winter to keep them tolerable…I’m sure(Image: Tom Burnett/Manchester Evening News)
The windowless rooms are often sweltering and they have fans running around the clock, it must cost a fortune. It is the only hotel I’ve ever stayed in in December where I’ve had to have the fan on because it is too hot. It is not ideal.
Another fun quirk, although I’ve only seen this once in fairness, is the electronics. I once plugged a phone charger into a socket and a lamp went off. I’m no electrician but either something wasn’t quite right there or that’s some niche paranormal activity.
BUT
Despite its many shortcomings in some departments however, I still reckon Sacha’s is my favourite hotel in Manchester.
For a start, it is in a superb location (occasional police cordons notwithstanding). I challenge anyone to find a hotel for the same price so close to Manchester’s shopping/nightlife etc. They don’t tend to open their bar on weeknights as much anymore, but you are right next tot the late opening NQ64, which offers both pints AND Pacman. Spoilt.
It is also absolutely superb for the airport. You can roll out of bed, grab a shower and be on a train in about 15 minutes, and for far less than getting a hotel that is actually anywhere near the airport would cost. This works both ways too. If you’re a visitor to our great city from abroad then Sacha’s presents a great ‘straight off the train from the airport and into the hotel’ option (admittedly I’ve never seen too many delighted foreign tourists buying the postcards featuring the hotel that they sell on the lobby, but I am sure someone does).
It’s £41 in the city centre, what do you expect?(Image: Tom Burnett/Manchester Evening News)
Also, and thus I feel really is the clincher, it is bloody cheap for what it is. It is a private room for the night in England’s second city (Sorry Birmingham, but you’re really not even close) for about 40 quid most of the time – although admittedly they are very adept at jacking the price up if anyone with their own Wikipedia entry is performing anywhere within 40 miles of Piccadilly Gardens on any given night.
If you want to pay more for a room, then go ahead, pay it. But equally don’t expect too much from what is almost definitely the cheapest hotel in the city centre. It is what it is at the end of the day. You’re never going to bump into Taylor Swift meandering through the endless corridors, but I doubt she spends much time looking for budget options when she is on tour.
Glad you aren’t here?(Image: Tom Burnett/Manchester Evening News)
When I am travelling abroad I look for a number of factors when judging a hotel: Price, proximity to nice pubs, proximity to stuff to do and how close it is to transport to my next destination.
Sacha’s ticks all the boxes. Every city should have one.