Review: the Manchester Marriott Hotel Piccadilly (ex-Macdonald)

This is our review of the Manchester Marriott Hotel Piccadilly, which used to be a Macdonald hotel.

I was invited to Manchester last week for the opening party, which was a surprisingly big budget and well attended event. I was given a free room for the night as part of the invitation so I got to see most of the hotel in action.

This is the sister hotel to Edinburgh Marriott Hotel Holyrood, which was also previous a Macdonald property. Our review of Edinburgh Marriott Hotel Holyrood, also from the launch party, is here.

The hotel website is here.

If you know Manchester you will recognise the building. The reason it is a CGI picture is that the exterior is being fully refurbished – it looks a lot better than old pictures from the Macdonald days imply.

What you can’t see from the image above is that a road cuts through the building at ground level. This means that whilst the guest room floors seem to go on forever, the public areas are not as huge as the picture implies.

Whilst all public areas are fully open, some rooms are still being upgraded and the building is partly scaffolded. There was no noise disruption during my stay, and there is a benefit from a lot of rooms being out of action – no queues for breakfast!

The hotel is literally one minute from Manchester Piccadilly railway station. The quickest way to reach it is to exit the station via the escalators which take you down to the taxi area, and not out of the main entrance.

These women will probably not be waiting for the lifts if you go (or perhaps they will, it is Manchester after all):

‘The biggest standard rooms in Manchester’

The General Manager told me that the hotel has the biggest standard rooms in Manchester, and I believe him. I thought I’d been given a Junior Suite, but it turns that my room (almost as big as the suite I had at Park Hyatt Paris Vendome two days before) was actually an entry level one.

Take a look here:

and

and

Unless you ask for a family room with two beds, your standard room will look like this. You get a large bed and a sofa and two chairs, along with a round table and a very large TV.

At the back you have, partially out of shot, a small open wardrobe as is the trend these days. There was a Nespresso machine plus a kettle with tea bags and (for Nespresso haters) Nescafe sachets. The mini bar is not filled except for two bottles of water.

The bathroom is fully equipped with a bath AND a large standalone shower. A robe was provided. Toiletries were the standard Marriott thisworks brand.

I was on the top (8th floor) with a view out of the back. You are likely to get a high floor at the moment as it is the lower floors that are still partially out of action for refurbishment.

The M Club Lounge

If you have Marriott Bonvoy Platinum or higher status, or if you book a room with lounge access, you get to use the M Club Lounge on the first floor.

It looks good:

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The food offering was a little thin, but I don’t know if that was due to the party (virtually every room had been given to a party attendee) or because the hotel is not running at full capacity due to room refurbishment.

There were two hot items in the evening, fish cakes and battered sausages, together with a selection of crudites, cheese and crackers and a sponge cake.

Breakfast was better but still definitely second rate compared to the restaurant:

The croissants, for example, came in individual plastic bags. Other options were pastries, fruit, cold cuts, cheese and a small cereal selection. The hot options were sausages and scrambled egg.

Again, I don’t know if the offering had been scaled down due to the party, although to be fair there was more than enough to fill you up. I was the only person in the lounge when I popped in on my way down to the restaurant for breakfast.

The restaurant

The restaurant is on the mezzanine floor, tucked away up a flight of stairs next to the bar and not obviously apparent.

Whilst I was at the launch party and not eating there in the evening, the menu is ambitious. Mains were trio of beetroot, chorizo moules frites, breast of chicken with Bury black pudding, monkfish with curried potato and harissa lamb with paprika potatoes, priced from £15 to £23, plus a £32 steak option.

Appetisers were equally interesting – goats cheese beignets, gambas pil pil, Forest of Bowland and confit duck potato hash, priced from £6 to £11.

If it tastes as good as it sounds, I can imagine it bringing in people from outside the hotel for dinner – although the mezzanine location means that you can’t see it from the street.

Here are some restaurant interiors:

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The buffet breakfast here was VERY comprehensive and I recommend it. There is also an omelette station. My only gripe was that you had to get your own coffee from a machine rather than having a pot brought to your table.

I should also mention that the hotel has a small shop next to reception with soft and alcoholic drinks, pot noodles, crisps, pringles and chocolate, as well as some newspapers and magazines.

The spa and gym

I was surprised to find that the hotel has an Elemis spa. It’s slightly tricky to reach because it is on the other side of the ground floor to reception and the restaurant, separated by the road which tunnels through the building.

All of the treatment rooms were being used when I went down so I couldn’t get any photographs, but I did get to see the comprehensive gym in the basement:

Spa treatments, primarily facials and massages, are £80-£100 for 50 minutes.

A few niggles ….

There is a lot to like about Manchester Marriott Hotel Piccadilly, and the refurbishment has been thorough. There are a few quick wins they could do though:

• the corridors, as you can imagine from the top photo, go on for ever – they need more signs to point you towards the end with the lift, because it’s a long walk back when you go the wrong way!

• there were no glasses in the bathroom

• there were no decaf Nespresso capsules – of the six capsules provided, five were identical and none were decaf

The biggest issue is tougher to fix – the lifts. They have not been replaced as part of the work. There are only two which head to reception (the lifts at the other end go to the spa) and for 300+ rooms it isn’t enough.

Even more annoyingly, there are no ‘up/down’ call buttons, just a generic button. If you are in the lounge on the first floor and you want to go up to your room, you push the lift button and it is pure chance if the next lift that stops is actually going up. You’d have a similar issue if you wanted to visit a room on a different floor to yours.

Conclusion

The combination of being literally one minute away from Manchester Piccadilly station, as well as having the largest rooms in Manchester (and fully refurbished ones at that) makes Marriott Manchester Hotel Piccadilly a compelling proposition.

The ambitious restaurant and comprehensive breakfast buffet are icing on the cake.

If you have Platinum or higher status in Marriott Bonvoy, the fact that there is an M Club Lounge which you can utilise is an extra bonus.

Hotel pricing in Manchester is all over the place, with weekends often being more expensive than weekdays due to football matches, so examples don’t mean much. If the hotel is competitively priced compared with other 4-star hotels then the location, the refurbishment and the food should give it an edge.

You can find out more, and book, on the hotel website here.

Looking for a hotel in Manchester?

We’ve reviewed a number of hotels in the city, including (click to read):

• Holiday Inn Manchester City Centre review (IHG One Rewards)
• Hyatt House Manchester review (World of Hyatt)
• Hyatt Regency Manchester review (World of Hyatt)
• INNSiDE Manchester review (MeliaRewards)
• Kimpton Clocktower Manchester review (IHG One Rewards)
• Manchester Marriott Hotel Piccadilly review (Marriott Bonvoy)
• Moxy Manchester City review (Marriott Bonvoy)

At the airport we have reviewed:

• DoubleTree Manchester Airport review (Hilton Honors)
• Holiday Inn Manchester Airport review (IHG One Rewards)
• Marriott Manchester Airport review (Marriott Bonvoy)
• TRIBE Manchester Airport review (Accor Live Limitless)

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There are various ways of earning Marriott Bonvoy points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

The official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card comes with 20,000 points for signing up, 2 points for every £1 you spend and 15 elite night credits per year.

You can apply here.

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points by converting American Express Membership Rewards points at the rate of 2:3.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Marriott Bonvoy Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.

We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points indirectly:

• American Express Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
• American Express Rewards Credit Card (10,000 bonus Amex points)

and for small business owners:

• American Express Business Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
• American Express Business Platinum (50,000 bonus Amex points)

The conversion rate from American Express to Marriott Bonvoy points is 2:3.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Marriott Bonvoy points.