Crowne Plaza Manchester Airport - Stayed October 2018

What is your Priority Club status?
Spire Elite

Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?

Yes

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?

I had booked a standard double, but upgraded to King Club as the reception recognised me as a frequent stayer.

How are the rooms?

Clean and comfortable, if slightly dated nowadays. However perfectly functional for a pre-flight overnight stay.

How is the exec. lounge?

Small, can be busy. Usual canapes served during the evening – get in quickly for them as they soon run out. Continental Breakfast (toast and scrambled egg etc) available. However, note that if you have an early flight the lounge only serves the complimentary breakfast from 06:00am. (The normal restaurant breakfast starts at 05:30am).

What was good and what was bad?

Having stayed here many times, I was recognised and didn’t have to give my name to check in.

Check in was swift and efficient. There is a separate ‘Priority’ queue for Executive Club members, however this is often full of aircrew, so the normal queue can be faster.

If you have a vehicle tap the registration number into the tablet when checking in, else parking can be even more extortionate than it is already. All parking is controlled by ‘parking eye’ recognition cameras.

The room was clean and comfortable with a King size bed. Usual CP unguents in the bathroom. Ideal for a pre-flight/after flight stay.

As usual, there was a large queue of people waiting for the airport transfer shuttle minibuses at 04:30hrs. Hence, I took a slow walk over to T3 which is an easy 5-minute walk and I beat the shuttle bus by quite a while. I was already in the BA Terraces Lounge having coffee and porridge by the time other hotel guests arrived having waited for the shuttle. If heading for T3 or T1 it is a maximum of 7-minutes’ walk, so unless the weather is inclement, or you have loads of baggage, don’t bother waiting ages for the shuttles.

If arriving at MAN the courtesy phone to ring for the shuttle is often hidden by advertising screens etc. Instead just ring the front desk direct on 0161 498 4000 when exiting the baggage hall to request the shuttle.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?

I paid on points this visit (25,000 points). Good value for this points level and I will stay again when flying to/from MAN as it is very convenient being on the airport complex.