Blighty 2025 - The Manchester Apartment

We had a good holiday in England, and the only thing of note that caused us any angst was the Manchester apartment. 

Booked through Booking.Com, the photos of the place were good, and while we knew it would be small, and warm with windows floor to ceiling, we weren't quite prepared for the cheapness of the place, and by that I mean poor maintenance, poor housekeeping, and a general lack of  any kind of quality.

We arrived early, parked up and had a walk down to the nearby Burger King. The apartments were modern and supplied with two parking space each, but the grounds around the blocks were, to say the least, unkempt. As we walked down Goodiers Drive, we saw garbage littered everywhere, and used cans of Nitrous Oxide in the hedges. Clearly that was the favourite of the local addicts. Certainly the apartment owners are not responsible for the mess on the street, but it didn't look good for the five nights we were staying.

The Burger King had a big set of black railings around it, a security gate and all sorts of security signage. Inside it was cards only, kiosk ordering only, and the counter had a screen like you'd see in a bank (not quite as flash, but you get the idea). Again, this didn't bode well.

The guy who checked us into the apartment was as nice as could be, helpful and obliging, as he should have been. It was only after he left that we realised that this was a place set up for a profit, and we were the cash cows. There was only the most basic things in the kitchen, only four of anything and only one power outlet for both the toaster and the kettle. The couple of sachets of coffee was a mean "welcome pack".

It was hot, too, and there was a floor-standing fan blowing the hot air around. Accessing the windows wasn't easy with the venetian blinds in place, most of which were only partly functional, and just plain broken in places. 

The bed in the second bedroom was poor positioned and allowed only about six inches between its end and the wall, meaning you had to edge past it to get to the window, or clamber over the bed. The bed itself wasn't top quality, and the sheets were all too small so wouldn't tuck in around the mattress. The pillows were, well, barely pillows.

Everywhere was dusty, too. The floor, the skirting boards, the window sills. There was a fair bit of mould around the bath and shower screen, and the bathroom sink absolutely stank of mould. It was nose stinging.

As if to cement our unfavourable view of the place, around 10pm we had to listen to a man outside being lavishly and very loudly sick. Well, it was Friday night.

We were upset that after our fantastic Cotswold adventure, we were in a drug abuse area of Salford, in a less than ideal apartment. We contacted the guy who had checked us in about getting another fan to help cool the place, but were met with a big fat no. We debated at length about getting somewhere else, and spent quite a while looking on the Internet, but there was nothing that we could practically do. We were even prepared to take a financial hit, but time was against us. We went to bed and hoped it would look better in the morning.

It was a hot night, even with the windows open, and we were certainly pleased that we'd brought some little (light and flat) fans with us, as these worked to keep the air moving. It didn't help that one of the two windows in our bedroom had a broken lock and wouldn't open.

Things did look a little better in the morning, and the smell in the bathroom was dissipating a little as we used the sink. The car was still outside, still in one piece, which I have to say I doubted it would be, given the area.

Fortunately, we didn't have to spend too much time in the apartment as we had lots of excursions planned. It was so hot in there, even with the windows open, that it would have been very comfortable to stay in for any length of time.

To be fair, it was a reasonable two bedroomed apartment, but for us it simply wasn't quite what we were expecting. I'm sure there were plenty of people in Manchester who would have been grateful for any roof over their heads, and it does seem a bit churlish to moan so much. It was also at the cheaper end of the scale, so perhaps our expectations were a little high. But I couldn't shake the feeling that this was one of many apartments owned by our host, and that it was all about expending as little as possible in order to make the maximum profit, and be damned the cursed guests. 

Still, lesson learned, be wary of apartments in city apartment blocks.