Stayed here for two nights recently at the decent rate of 54 GBP. The hotel is very basic, as all Ibis hotels are. My was room decent size, clean and functional. That was all I expected, and that was all I got. Not many praises to sing, but no real criticisms for the price either.

Stayed at this hotel during Manchester Pride 2005. The hotel had gone overboard to be gay friendly - rainbow flags draped over the sofas in reception, gay magazines and safe sex packs on the reception desk and the bar. When we arrived they were even playing the Village People (maybe that was going too far!).
Nice clean modern rooms. Openable windows and airconditioning. Great powerfull showers. Good location - walking distance from Picadilly Station, the Gay Village and the City Centre. Friendly staff. Can't fault it really. Will definately stay again

We stayed at the Ibis Hotel, Charles' street from Wed 22 to Fri 24 June 2005. We chose the Ibis because it was the closest hotel to UMIST (with available double room), and we didn't quite know how far it was from the centre of Manchester to UMIST (hard to get a grip of distance when looking at a map).

It was difficult to find the entrance to the hotel, because when we looked in it seemed to be a cafe. But to the right there was a counter with the reception. Friendly staff, but no non smoking rooms avaiable. The receptionist changed our room though, so we thought we got a non smoking room after all. First impression of room was good - until we got to the other side of the bed. There was a huge black stain on the carpet, right where you get out of bed. Also found the room to be a smoking room after all, but it didn't smell. So we didn't want to change room, since a smelly room would be worse. The room was rather small, no place to place the suitcase, so we had to unpack it totally and use the wardrobe. The bathroom was small, but nice. We also got a towel (to put on the floor next to the shower) with black stains on it. The sheets seemed clean though. The worst thing was the bed. It was far too hard for my back! It hurt the rest of our stay in Manchester, even though we stayed in another hotel (with wonderful beds) the next two days.

Breakfast was simple, but OK. Staff had problems filling up the buffet with food and juice, and filling up cutlery, plates, glasses and cups. They also didn't have time cleaning the tables for the next guests to sit. It was better the second morning, it seemed there was one more on duty.

I would never stay at the Ibis again, because of the bed. The stains I could live with if we still were students with low budget, but since we have ordinary income now I wouldn't consider this hotel again. I would definitely stay at the Arora (our second hotel). But if my husband would travel alone to Manchester, he wouldn't mind staying at the Ibis...